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ON  CANADA'S  FRONTIER 


Skctcbce 

OF  HISTORY,  SPORT.  AND  ADVENTURE 
AND  OF  THE  INDIANS,  MISSIONARIES 
FUR-TRADERS,  AND  NEWER  SETTLERS 
OF   WESTERN   CANADA 

BY 

JULIAN    RALPH 

ILLUSTRATED 


NEW    YORK 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    FRANKLIN    SQUARE 

1892 


^-^G  S* 


Copyright,  1892,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 

All  rights  reserved. 


\0  (pO.  ^ 

■^^  13 


TO 

THE    PEOPLE    OF   CANADA 

THIS    BOOK    IS    GRATEFULLY    DEDICATED    BY    THE   AUTHOR 

WHO,    DURING    MANY    LONG    JOURNEYS    IN    THE    CANADIAN    WEST 

WAS  ALWAYS  AND  EVERYWHERE  TREATED  WITH  AN  EXTREME 

FRIENDLINESS     TO     WHICH     HE     HERE     TESTIFIES 

BUT    WHICH    HE   CANNOT   EASILY    RETURN 

IN    EQUAL    MEASURE 


PREFACE 


If  all  those  into  whose  hands  this  book  may  fall  were  as  well  in- 
formed upon  the  Dominion  of  Canada  as  are  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  there  would  not  be  needed  a  word  of  explanation  of 
the  title  of  this  volume.  Yet  to  those  who  might  otherwise  infer 
that  what  is  here  related  applies  equally  to  all  parts  of  Canada,  it  is 
necessary  to  explain  that  the  work  deals  solely  with  scenes  and 
phases  of  life  in  the  newer,  and  mainly  the  western,  parts  of  that 
countr>\  The  great  English  colony  which  stirs  the  pages  of  more 
than  two  centuries  of  history  has  for  its  capitals  such  proud  and 
notable  cities  as  Montreal,  Quebec,  Toronto,  Halifax,  and  many  oth- 
ers, to  distinguish  the  progressive  civilization  of  the  region  east  of 
Lake  Huron — the  older  provinces.  But  the  Canada  of  the  geogra- 
phies of  to-day  is  a  land  of  greater  area  than  the  United  States ;  it 
is,  in  fact,  the  "  British  America  "  of  old.  A  great  trans-Canadian 
railway  has  joined  the  ambitious  province  of  the  Pacific  slope  to  the 
provinces  of  old  Canada  with  stitches  of  steel  across  the  Plains. 
There  the  same  mixed  surplusage  of  Europe  that  settled  our  own 
West  is  elbowing  the  fur-trader  and  the  Indian  out  of  the  way,  and 
is  laying  out  farms  far  north,  in  the  smiling  Peace  River  district, 
where  it  was  only  a  little  while  ago  supposed  that  there  were  but 
two  seasorts,  winter  and  late  spring.  It  is  with  that  new  part  of  Can- 
ada, between  the  ancient  and  well-populated  provinces  and  the  sturdy 
new  cities  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  that  this  book  deals.  Some  refer- 
ences to  the  North  are  added  in  those  chapters  that  treat  of  hunting 
and  fishing  and  fur-trading. 

The  chapters  that  compose  this  book  originally  formed  a  series  of 


vi  PREFACE 

papers  which  recorded  journeys  and  studies  made  in  Canada  during 
the  past  three  years.  The  first  one  to  be  published  was  that  which 
describes  a  settler's  colony  in  which  a  few  titled  foreigners  took  the 
lead ;  the  others  were  written  so  recently  that  they  should  possess 
the  same  interest  and  value  as  if  they  here  first  met  the  public  eye. 
What  that  interest  and  value  amount  to  is  for  the  reader  to  judge, 
the  author's  position  being  such  that  he  may  only  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  he  had  access  to  private  papers  and  documents  when 
he  prepared  the  sketches  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  and  that,  in 
pursuing  information  about  the  great  province  of  British  Columbia, 
he  was  not  able  to  learn  that  a  serious  and  extended  study  of  its  re- 
sources had  ever  been  made.  The  principal  studies  and  sketches 
were  prepared  for  and  published  in  Harper's  Magazine.  The  spirit 
in  which  they  were  written  was  solely  that  of  one  who  loves  the  open 
air  and  his  fellow-men  of  every  condition  and  color,  and  who  has  had 
the  good-fortune  to  witness  in  newer  Canada  something  of  the  old 
and  almost  departed  life  of  the  plainsmen  and  woodsmen,  and  of  the 
newer  forces  of  nation-building  on  our  continent. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I.  Titled  Pioneers i 

II.  Chartering  a  Nation ii 

III.  A  Famous  Missionary 53 

IV,  Antoine's  Moose- yard 66 

V.  Big  Fishing 115 

VI.  "A  Skin  for  a  Skin" 134 

VII.  "Talking  Musquash" igo 

VIII,  Canada's  El  Dorado 244 

IX.  Dan  Dunn's  Outfit 290 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

The  Romantic  Adventure  of  Old  Sims    Wife     ....     Frontispiece 

Dr.  Rudolph  Meyer's  Place  on  the  Pipestone 2 

Settler  s  Sod  Cabin 3 

Whitewood,  a  Settlement  on  the  Prairie 4 

Interior  of  Sod  Cabin  on  the  Frontier 5 

Prairie  Sod  Stable 7 

Trained  Ox  Team 9 

Indian  Boys  Running  a  Foot-race 31 

Indian  MotJier  and  Boy 36 

Opening  of  the  Soldier  Clan  Dance 39 

Sketch  in  the  Soldier  Clan  Dance 43 

A  Fatttasy  from  the  Pony  War- dance 47 

Throwing  the  Snow  Snake 5  ^ 

Father  Lacombe  Heading  the  Indians 61 

The  Hotel— Last  Sign  of  Civilization 69 

"Give  me  a  light" 73 

Antoine,from  Life 79 

The  Portage  Sleigh  on  a  Lumber  Road 83 

The  Track  in  the  Winter  Forest 87 

Pierre,  from  Life 9^ 

Antoine's  Cabin 93 

The  Camp  at  Night 97 

A  Moose  Bull  Fight loi 

On  the  Moose  Trail io3 

In  Sight  of  the  Game— "  Notu  Shoot" 105 

Success • '°9 

Hunting  the  Caribou—"  Shoot !     Shoot !".... 1 1 1 

Indians  Hauling  Nets  on  Lake  Nepigon 119 

Trout-fishing  Through  the  Ice 127 

Rival  Traders  Racing  to  the  Indian  Camp i  37 

The  Bear-trap °     •  1 43 


X  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAG8 

Huskie  Dogs  Fighting I47 

Paintitig  the  Robe 151 

Coureur    dii  Bois 159 

A  Fur -trader  in  the  Coiotcil  Tepee 163 

Buffalo  Meat  for  the  Post 167 

The  Indian  Hunter  of  lyjo 171 

Indian  Hunter  Hanging  Deer  Out  of  the  Reach  of  Wolves     .  173 

Making  the  Snow-shoe 177 

A  Hudson  Bay  Man  {Quarter-breed) 181 

The  Coureur   du  Bois  and  the  Savage 185 

Talking  MusquasJi 193 

Indian  Hunters  Moving  Camp 198 

Setting  a  AI ink-trap 201 

Wood  Itidians  Come  to  Trade 205 

A    Voyageur,  or  Canoe-man,  of  Great  Slave  Lake 209 

In  a  Stiff  Current 211 

Voyageur  with   Tutnpline 217 

Voyageur s  in  Camp  for  the  Night 221 

"  Huskie  "  Dogs  on  the  Frozen  Highway 227 

The  Factor's  Fancy  Toboggan 233 

Halt  of  a   York  Boat  Brigade  for  the  Night 239 

An  Impression  of  Shuswap  Lake,  British  Columbia     .     .     .     .  251 

The  Tschunwium,  or  Tool  Used  in  Making  Canoes      ....  257 

The  First  of  the  Sahnon  Ritn,  Fraser  River 261 

Indian  Salmon-fishing  in  the   Thrasher 266 

Going  to  the  Potlatch — Big  Canoe,  North-west  Coast    ....  269 

The  Salmon  Cache 275 

An  Ideal  of  the  Coast 279 

The  Potlatch 283 

An  Indian  Canoe  on  the  Columbia 293 

"You're  setting  your  nerves  to  stand  it" 297 

fack  Kirkup,  the  Moutttain  Sheriff 299 

Fngineer  on  the  Preliminary  Survey 303 

Falling  Monarchs 308 

Dan  Dunn  on  His    Works 311 

The  Supply   Train  Over  the  Mountain 313 

A  Sketch  on  the   Work 317 

The  Mess  Tent  at  Night 319 

"They  Gained  Erectness  by  Slow  folts" 322 


ON    CANADA'S   FRONTIER 


TITLED    PIONEERS 


THERE  is  a  very  remarkable  bit  of  this  conti- 
nent just  north  of  our  State  of  North  Dakota, 
in  what  the  Canadians  call  Assiniboia,  one  of  the 
North-west  Provinces.  Here  the  plains  reach  away 
in  an  almost  level,  unbroken,  brown  ocean  of  grass. 
Here  are  some  wonderful  and  some  very  peculiar 
phases  of  immigration  and  of  human  endeavor. 
Here  is  Major  Bell's  farm  of  nearly  one  hundred 
square  miles,  famous  as  the  Bell  Farm.  Here  Lady 
Cathcart,  of  England,  has  miercifully  established  a 
colony  of  crofters,  rescued  from  poverty  and  oppres- 
sion. Here  Count  Esterhazy  has  been  experiment- 
inor  with  a  larsfe  number  of  Hunsfarians,  who  form  a 
colony  which  would  do  better  if  those  foreigners  were 
not  all  together,  with  only  each  other  to  imitate — 
and  to  commiserate.  But,  stranger  than  all  these, 
here  is  a  little  band  of  distinguished  Europeans, 
partly  noble  and  partly  scholarly,  gathered  together 
in  as  lonely  a  spot  as  can  be  found  short  of  the 
Rockies  or  the  far  northern  regions  of  this  continent. 


■MMfih:u^,iy- 


DR.   RUDOLPH    MEYER'S    PLACE    ON    THE 
PIPESTONE 


These  gentlemen  are  Dr.  Rudolph  Meyer,  of  Berlin, 
the  Comte  de  Cazes  and  the  Comte  de  RafiRfmac,  of 
France,  and  M.  le  Bidau  de  St.  Mars,  of  that  country 
also.  They  form,  in  all  probability,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished and  aristocratic  little  band  of  immigrants 
and  farmers  in  the  New  World. 

Seventeen  hundred  miles  west  of  Montreal,  in  a 
vast  prairie  where  settlers  every  year  go  mad  from 
loneliness,  these  polished  Europeans  till  the  soil, 
strive  for  prizes  at  the  provincial  fairs,  fish,  hunt, 
read  the  current  literature  of  two  continents,  and  are 
happy.  The  soil  in  that  region  is  of  remarkable 
depth  and  richness,  and  is  so  black  that  the  roads 
and  cattle-trails  look  like  ink  lines  on  brown  paper. 
It  is  part  of  a  vast  territory  of  uniform  appearance, 
in  one  portion  of  which  are  the  richest  wheat-lands 


TITLED    PIONEERS  3 

•of  the  continent.  The  Canadian  Pacific  Railway 
crosses  Assiniboia,  with  stops  about  five  miles  apart 
— some  mere  stations  and  some  small  settlements. 
Here  the  best  houses  are  little  frame  dwellings ;  but 
very  many  of  the  settlers  live  in  shanties  made  of 
sods,  with  such  thick  walls  and  tight  roofs,  all  of  sod, 
that  the  awful  winters,  when  the  mercury  falls  to  for- 
ty degrees  below  zero,  are  endured  in  them  better 
than  in  the  more  costly  frame  dwellings. 

I  stopped  off  the  cars  at  Whitewood,  picking  that 
four-year-old  village  out  at  hap-hazard  as  a  likely 
point  at  which  to  see  how  the  immigrants  live  in  a 
brand-new  country.  I  had  no  idea  of  the  existence 
of  any  of  the  persons  I  found  there.  The  most  per- 
fect hospitality  is  offered  to  strangers  in  such  infant 
communities,  and  while  enjoying  the  shelter  of  a  mer- 
chant's house  I  obtained  news  of  the  distinguished 


#1 


SETTLER  S    SOD    CABIN 


ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 


settlers,  all  of  whom  live  away  from  the  railroad  in 
solitude  not  to  be  conceived  by  those  who  think  their 
homes  the  most  isolated  in  the  older  parts  of  the 
country.  I  had  only  time  to  visit  Dr.  Rudolph 
Meyer,  five  miles  from  W'hitewood,  in  the  valley  of 
the  Pipestone. 


^^m^^ii^^^i  ^'■M^^^f^ 


"WiM^^ 


WHITEWOOD,    A    SETTLEMENT    ON    THE    PRAIRIE 

The  way  was  across  a  level  prairie,  with  here  and 
there  a  bunch  of  young  wolf- willows  to  break  the 
monotonous  scene,  with  tens  of  thousands  of  gophers 
sitting  boldly  on  their  haunches  within  reach  of  the 
wagon  whip,  with  a  sod  house  in  sight  in  one  direc- 
tion at  one  time  and  a  frame  house  in  view  at  an- 
other. The  talk  of  the  driver  was  spiced  with  news 
of  abundant  wild-fowl,  fewer  deer,  and  marvellously 
numerous  small  quadrupeds,  from  wolves  and  foxes 
down.  He  talked  of  bachelors  living  here  and  there 
alone  on  that  sea  of  orrass,  for  all  the  world  like  men 


TITLED    PIONEERS 


5 


in  small  boats  on  the  ocean ;  and  I  saw,  contrariwise, 
a  man  and  wife  who  blessed  Heaven  for  an  unheard- 
of  number  of  children,  especially  prized  because  each 
new-comer  lessened  the  loneliness.  I  heard  of  the 
long  and  dreadful  winters  when  the  snowfall  is  so 
light  that  horses  and  mules  may  always  paw  down 
to  grass,  though  cattle  stand  and  starve  and  freeze 
to  death.  I  heard,  too,  of  the  way  the  snow  comes 
in  flurried  squalls,  in  which  men  are  lost  within  pis- 
tol-shot of  their  homes.     In  time  the  was^on  came  to 


INTERIOR    OF    SOD    CABIN    ON    THE    FRONTIER 


6  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

a  sort  of  coulee  or  hollow,  in  which  some  mechanics- 
imported  from  Paris  were  putting  up  a  fine  cottage 
for  the  Comte  de  Rafifignac.  Ten  paces  farther,  and 
I  stood  on  the  edge  of  the  valley  of  the  Pipestone, 
looking  at  a  scene  so  poetic,  pastoral,  and  beautiful 
that  in  the  whole  transcontinental  journey  there 
were  few  views  to  compare  with  it. 

Reaching  away  far  below  the  level  of  the  prairie 
was  a  bowl-like  valley,  a  mile  long  and  half  as  wide, 
with  a  crystal  stream  lying  like  a  ribbon  of  silver 
midway  between  its  sloping  walls.  Another  valley, 
longer  yet,  served  as  an  extension  to  this.  On  the 
one  side  the  high  grassy  walls  were  broken  with  fre- 
quent gullies,  while  on  the  other  side  was  a  park-like 
oTowth  of  forest  trees.  Meadows  and  fields  lav  be- 
tween,  and  nestling  against  the  eastern  or  grassy 
wall  was  the  quaint,  old-fashioned  German  house  of 
the  learned  doctor.  Its  windows  looked  out  on 
those  beautiful  little  valleys,  the  property  of  the  doc- 
tor— a  little  world  far  below  the  great  prairie  out  of 
which  sportive  and  patient  Time  had  hollowed  it. 
Externally  the  long,  low,  steep-roofed  house  was  Ger- 
man, ancient,  and  picturesque  in  appearance.  Its 
main  floor  was  all  enclosed  in  the  sash  and  glass 
frame  of  a  covered  porch,  and  outside  of  the  walls  of 
glass  were  heavy  curtains  of  straw,  to  keep  out  the 
sun  in  summer  and  the  cold  in  winter.  In-doors  the 
house  is  as  comfortable  as  any  in  the  world.  Its 
framework  is  filled  with  brick,  and  its  trimmings  are 
all  of  pine,  oiled  and  varnished.  In  the  heart  of  the 
house  is  a  great  Russian  stove — a  huge  box  of  brick- 
work, which  is  filled  full  of  wood  to  make  a  fire  that 


I.  it* 


■jife 


1.'-"%;        |l,'>  /'■-*: 


PRAIRIE  SOD    STABLE 


is  made  fresh  every  day,  and  that 
heats  the  house  for  twenty -four 
hours.  A  well-filled  wine-cellar,  a 
well-equipped  library,  where  Har- 
per's Weekly,  and  Uber  Land 
und  Mer,  Picjuk,  Puck,  and  Die  Flicgende  Blatter 
lie  side  by  side,  a  kindly  wife,  and  a  stumbling  baby, 
tell  of  a  combination  of  domestic  joys  that  no  man  is 
too  rich  to  envy.  The  library  is  the  doctor's  work- 
shop He  is  now  engaged  in  compiling  a  digest  of 
the  economic  laws  of  nations.  He  is  already  well 
known  as  the  author  of  a  History  of  Socialism  (in 
Germany,  the  United  States,  Scandinavia,  Russia, 
France,  Belgium,  and  elsewhere),  and  also  for  his 
History  of  Socialisiu  in  Germany.  He  writes  in 
French  and  German,  and  his  works  are  published  in 
Germany. 


8  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

Dr.  Meyer  is  fifty-three  years  old.  He  is  a  politi- 
cal exile,  having  been  forced  from  Prussia  for  con- 
nection with  an  unsuccessful  opposition  to  Bismarck. 
It  is  because  he  is  a  scholar  seekins:  rest  from  the 
turmoil  of  politics  that  one  is  able  to  comprehend  his 
living  in  this  overlooked  corner  of  the  world.  Yet 
when  that  is  understood,  and  one  knows  what  an  Ar- 
cadia his  little  valley  is,  and  how  complete  are  his 
comforts  within-doors,  the  placidity  with  which  he 
smokes  his  pipe,  drinks  his  beer,  and  is  waited  upon 
by  servants  imported  from  Paris,  becomes  less  a  mat- 
ter for  wonder  than  for  congratulation.  He  has 
shared  part  of  one  valley  with  the  Comte  de  Rafifig- 
nac,  who  thinks  there  is  nothing  to  compare  with  it 
on  earth.  The  count  has  had  his  house  built  near 
the  abruptly-broken  edge  of  the  prairie,  so  that  he 
may  look  down  upon  the  calm  and  beautiful  valley 
and  enjoy  it,  as  he  could  not  had  he  built  in  the 
valley  itself.  He  is  a  youth  of  very  old  French  fam- 
ily, who  loves  hunting  and  horses.  He  was  contem- 
plating the  raising  of  horses  for  a  business  when  I 
was  there.  But  the  count  mars  the  romance  of  his 
membership  in  this  little  band  by  going  to  Paris 
now  and  then,  as  a  young  man  would  be  likely  to. 

Out-of-doors  one  saw  what  untold  good  it  does  to 
the  present  and  future  settlers  to  have  such  men 
among  them.  The  hot-houses,  glazed  vegetable  beds, 
the  plots  of  cultivated  ground,  the  nurseries  of  young 
trees — all  show  at  what  cost  of  money  and  patience 
the  Herr  Doctor  is  experimenting  with  every  tree 
and  flower  and  vegetable  and  cereal  to  discover  what 
can  be  grown  with  profit  in  that  region  of  rich  soil 


TITLED  PIONEERS  9 

and  short  summers,  and  what  cannot.  He  is  in  com- 
munication with  the  seedsmen,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
savants,  of  Europe  and  this  country,  and  whatever  he 
plants  is  of  the  best.  Near  his  quaint  dwelling  he 
has  a  house  for  his  gardener,  a  smithy,  a  tool-house, 
a  barn,  and  a  cheese-factory,  for  he  makes  gruyere 
cheese  in  great  quantities.  He  also  raises  horses 
and  cattle. 

The  Comte  de  Cazes  has  a  sheltered,  favored  claim 
a  few  miles  to  the  northward,  near  the  Ou'  Appele 
River.  He  lives  in  great  comfort,  and  is  so  success- 
ful a  farmer  that  he  carries  off  nearly  all  the  prizes 
for  the  province,  especially  those  given  for  prime 
vegetables.  He  has  his  wife  and  daughter  and  one 
of  his  sons  with  him,  and  an  abundance  of  means, 
as,  indeed,  these  distinguished  settlers  all  appear  to 
have. 


TE^UXED    OX    TEAM 


lO  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

These  men  have  that  faculty,  developed  in  all  edu- 
cated and  thinking  souls,  which  enables  them  to  ban- 
ish loneliness  and  entertain  themselves.  Still,  though 
Dr.  Meyer  laughs  at  the  idea  of  danger,  it  must  have 
been  a  little  disquieting  to  live  as  he  does  during  the 
Riel  rebellion,  especially  as  an  Indian  reservation  is 
close  by,  and  wandering  red  men  are  seen  every  day 
upon  the  prairie.  Indeed,  the  Government  thought 
fit  to  send  men  of  the  North-west  Mounted  Police  to 
visit  the  doctor  twice  a  week  as  lately  as  a  year  af- 
ter the  close  of  the  half-breed  uprising. 


II 

CHARTERING    A    NATION 

HOW  it  came  about  that  we  chartered  the  Black- 
foot  nation  for  two  days  had  better  not  be  told 
in  straightforward  fashion.  There  is  more  that  is  in- 
teresting in  going  around  about  the  subject,  just  as  in 
reahty  we  did  go  around  and  about  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Indians  before  we  determined  to  visit  them. 

In  the  first  place,  the  most  interesting  Indian  I 
ever  saw — among  many  kinds  and  many  thousands 
• — was  the  late  Chief  Crowfoot,  of  the  Blackfoot  peo- 
ple. More  like  a  king  than  a  chief  he  looked,  as  he 
strode  upon  the  plains,  in  a  magnificent  robe  of 
white  bead-work  as  rich  as  ermine,  with  a  eoreeous 
pattern  illuminating  its  edges,  a  glorious  sun  worked 
into  the  front  of  it,  and  many  artistic  and  chromatic 
figures  sewed  in  gaudy  beads  upon  its  back.  He 
wore  an  old  white  chimney-pot  hat,  bound  around 
with  eagle  feathers,  a  splendid  pair  of  chaperajos,  all 
worked  with  beads  at  the  bottoms  and  frino;ed  alonor 
the  sides,  and  bead-worked  moccasins,  for  which  any 
lover  of  the  Indian  or  collector  of  his  paraphernalia 
would  have  exchanged  a  new  Winchester  rifle  with- 
out a  second's  hesitation.  But  though  Crowfoot  was 
so  royally  clothed,  it  was  in  himself  that  the  kingly 
quality  was  most  apparent.  His  face  was  extraordi- 
narily like  what  portraits  we  have  of  Julius  Caesar,. 


12  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

with  the  difference  that  Crowfoot  had  the  complexion 
of  an  Egyptian  mummy.  The  high  forehead,  the 
great  aquiHne  nose,  the  thin  hps,  usually  closed,  the 
small,  round,  protruding  chin,  the  strong  jawbones, 
and  the  keen  gray  eyes  composed  a  face  in  which 
every  feature  was  finely  moulded,  and  in  which  the 
warrior,  the  commander,  and  the  counsellor  were 
strongly  suggested.  And  in  each  of  these  roles  he 
played  the  highest  part  among  the  Indians  of  Canada 
from  the  moment  that  the  whites  and  the  red  men 
contested  the  dominion  of  the  plains  until  he  died,  a 
short  time  ago. 

He  was  born  and  lived  a  wild  Indian,  and  though 
the  good  fathers  of  the  nearest  Roman  Catholic  mis- 
sion believe  that  he  died  a  Christian,  I  am  constrained 
to  see  in  the  reason  for  their  thinking  so  only  another 
proof  of  the  consummate  shrewdness  of  Crowfoot's 
hfe-long  policy.  The  old  king  lay  on  his  death-bed 
in  his  great  wig-a-wam,  with  twenty-seven  of  his  med- 
icine-men around  him,  and  never  once  did  he  pretend 
that  he  despised  or  doubted  their  magic.  When  it 
was  evident  that  he  was  about  to  die,  the  conjurers 
ceased  their  long-continued,  exhausting  formula  of 
howling,  drumming,  and  all  the  rest,  and,  Indian-like, 
left  Death  to  take  his  own.  Then  it  was  that  one  of 
the  watchful,  zealous  priests,  whose  lives  have  indeed 
been  like  those  of  fathers  to  the  wild  Indians,  slipped 
into  the  great  tepee  and  administered  the  last  sacra- 
ment to  the  old  pagan. 

"  Do  you  believe  .^"  the  priest  inquired. 

"  Yes,  I  believe,"  old  Crowfoot  grunted.  Then  he 
whispered,  "  But  don't  tell  my  people." 


CHARTERING    A    NATION  I5 

Among  the  last  words  of  great  men,  those  of  Sa- 
ponaxitaw  (his  Indian  name)  may  never  be  recorded, 
but  to  the  student  of  the  American  aborigine  they 
betray  more  that  is  characteristic  of  the  habitual  atti- 
tude of  mind  of  the  wild  red  man  towards  civilizins: 
influences  than  any  words  I  ever  knew  one  to  utter. 

As  the  old  chief  crushed  the  bunch-grass  beneath 
his  gaudy  moccasins  at  the  time  I  saw  him,  and  as 
his  lesser  chiefs  and  headmen  strode  behind  him,  we 
who  looked  on  knew  what  a  great  part  he  was  bear- 
inor  and  had  taken  in  Canada.  He  had  been  chief  of 
the  most  powerful  and  savage  tribe  in  the  North,  and 
of  several  allied  tribes  as  well,  from  the  time  when 
the  region  west  of  the  Mississippi  was  terra  incognita 
to  all  except  a  few  fur  traders  and  priests.  His  war- 
riors ruled  the  Canadian  wilderness,  keeping  the 
Ojibbeways  and  Crees  in  the  forests  to  the  east  and 
north,  routing  the  Crows,  the  Stonies,  and  the  Big- 
Bellies  whenever  they  pleased,  and  yielding  to  no 
tribe  they  met  except  the  Sioux  to  the  southward 
in  our  territory.  The  first  white  man  Crowfoot 
ever  knew  intimately  was  Father  Lacombe,  the  noble 
old  missionary,  whose  fame  is  now  world-wide  among 
scholars.  The  peaceful  priest  and  the  warrior  chief 
became  fast  friends,  and  from  the  day  when  the  white 
men  first  broke  down  the  border  and  swarmed  upon 
the  plains,  until  at  the  last  they  ran  what  Crowfoot 
called  their  "  fire-wagons  "  (locomotives)  through  his 
land,  he  followed  the  priest's  counselling  in  most  im- 
portant matters.  He  treated  with  the  authorities, 
and  thereafter  hindered  his  braves  from  murder, 
massacre,  and  warfare.     Better  than  that,  during  the 


14  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

Riel  rebellion  he  more  than  any  other  man,  or  twenty- 
men,  kept  the  red  man  of  the  plains  at  peace  when 
the  French  half-breeds,  led  by  their  mentally  irrespon- 
sible disturber,  rebelled  against  the  Dominion  author- 
ities. 

When  Crowfoot  talked,  he  made  laws.  While  he 
spoke,  his  nation  listened  in  silence.  He  had  killed 
as  many  men  as  any  Indian  warrior  alive  ;  he  was  a 
mighty  buffalo-slayer ;  he  was  torn,  scarred,  and  man- 
gled in  skin,  limb,  and  bone.  He  never  would  learn 
English  or  pretend  to  discard  his  religion.  He  was 
an  Indian  after  the  pattern  of  his  ancestors.  At 
eighty  odd  years  of  age  there  lived  no  red -skin  who 
dared  answer  him  back  when  he  spoke  his  mind. 
But  he  was  a  shrewd  man  and  an  archdiplomatist. 
Because  he  had  no  quarrel  with  the  whites,  and  be- 
cause a  grand  old  priest  was  his  truest  friend,  he  gave 
orders  that  his  body  should  be  buried  in  a  coffin, 
Christian  fashion,  and  as  I  rode  over  the  plains  in  the 
summer  of  1890  I  saw  his  burial-place  on  top  of  a 
hieh  hill,  and  knew  that  his  bones  were  oruarded 
night  and  day  by  watchers  from  among  his  people. 
Two  or  three  days  before  he  died  his  best  horse  was 
slaughtered  for  burial  with  him.  He  heard  of  it. 
"  That  was  wrong,"  he  said ;  "  there  was  no  sense  in 
doing  that ;  and  besides,  the  horse  was  worth  good 
money."  But  he  was  always  at  least  as  far  as  that 
in  advance  of  his  people,  and  it  was  natural  that 
not  only  his  horse,  but  his  gun  and  blankets,  his 
rich  robes,  and  plenty  of  food  to  last  him  to  the 
happy  hunting-grounds,  should  have  been  buried 
with  him. 


CHARTERING    A    NATION  15 

There  are  different  ways  of  judging  which  is  the 
best  Indian,  but  from  the  stand-point  of  him  who 
would  examine  that  distinct  product  of  nature,  the 
Indian  as  the  white  man  found  him,  the  Canadian 
Blackfeet  are  among  if  not  quite  the  best.  They  are 
almost  as  primitive  and  natural  as  any,  nearly  the 
most  prosperous,  physically  very  fine,  the  most  free 
from  white  men's  vices.  They  are  the  most  reason- 
able in  their  attitude  towards  the  whites  of  any  who 
hold  to  the  true  Indian  philosophy.  The  sum  of 
that  philosophy  is  that  civilization  gets  men  a  great 
many  comforts,  but  bundles  them  up  with  so  many 
rules  and  responsibilities  and  so  much  hard  work 
that,  after  all,  the  wild  Indian  has  the  greatest 
amount  of  pleasure  and  the  least  share  of  care  that 
men  can  hope  for.  That  man  is  the  fairest  judge  of 
the  red -skins  who  considers  them  as  children,  gov- 
erned  mainly  by  emotion,  and  acting  upon  undisci- 
plined impulse ;  and  I  know  of  no  more  hearty,  natu- 
ral children  than  the  careless,  improvident,  impulsive 
boys  and  girls  of  from  five  to  eighty  years  of  age 
whom  Crowfoot  turned  over  to  the  care  of  Three 
Bulls,  his  brother. 

The  Blackfeet  of  Canada  number  about  two  thou- 
sand men,  women,  and  children.  They  dwell  upon  a 
reserve  of  nearly  five  hundred  square  miles  of  plains 
land,  watered  by  the  beautiful  Bow  River,  and  almost 
within  sight  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  is  in  the 
province  of  Alberta,  north  of  our  Montana.  There 
were  three  thousand  and  more  of  these  Indians  when 
the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  was  built  across  their 
hunting-ground,  seven  or  eight  years  ago,  but  they 


i6  ON  Canada's  frontier 

are  losing  numbers  at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  a  year,  roughly  speaking.  Their  neighbors,  the 
tribes  called  the  Bloods  and  the  Piegans,  are  of  the 
same  nation.  The  Sarcis,  once  a  great  tribe,  be- 
came weakened  by  disease  and  war,  and  many  years 
ago  begged  to  be  taken  into  the  confederation. 
These  tribes  all  have  separate  reserves  near  to  one 
another,  but  all  have  heretofore  acknowledged  each 
Blackfoot  chief  as  their  supreme  ruler.  Their  old 
men  can  remember  when  they  used  to  roam  as  far 
south  as  Utah,  and  be  gone  twelve  months  on  the 
war-path  and  on  their  foraging  excursions  for  horses. 
They  chased  the  Crees  as  far  north  as  the  Crees 
would  run,  and  that  was  close  to  the  arctic  circle. 
They  lived  in  their  war-paint  and  by  the  chase.  Now 
they  are  caged.  They  live  unnaturally  and  die  as 
unnaturally,  precisely  like  other  wild  animals  shut  up 
in  our  parks.  Within  their  park  each  gets  a  pound 
of  meat  with  half  a  pound  of  flour  every  day.  Not 
much  comes  to  them  besides,  except  now  and  then  a 
little  game,  tobacco,  and  new  blankets.  They  are  so 
poorly  lodged  and  so  scantily  fed  that  they  are  not 
fit  to  confront  a  Canadian  winter,  and  luno-  troubles 
prey  among  them. 

It  is  a  harsh  way  to  put  it  (but  it  is  true  of  our  own 
government  also)  to  say  that  one  who  has  looked  the 
subject  over  is  apt  to  decide  that  the  policy  of  the 
Canadian  Government  has  been  to  make  treaties  with 
the  dangerous  tribes,  and  to  let  the  peaceful  ones 
starve.  The  latter  do  not  need  to  starve  in  Canada, 
fortunately;  they  trust  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
for  food  and  care,  and  not  in  vain.      Having  treated 


.CHARTERING    A    NATION  I7 

with  the  wilder  Indians,  the  rest  of  the  policy  is  to 
send  the  brightest  of  their  boys  to  trade-schools,  and 
to  try  to  induce  the  men  to  till  the  soil.  Those  who 
do  so  are  then  treated  more  generously  than  the 
others.  I  have  my  own  ideas  with  which  to  meet 
those  who  find  nothing  admirable  in  any  except  a 
dead  Indian,  and  with  which  to  discuss  the  treatment 
and  policy  the  live  Indian  endures,  but  this  is  not  the 
place  for  the  discussion.  Sufrice  it  that  it  is  not  to 
be  denied  that  between  one  hundred  and  fifty  and 
two  hundred  Blackfeet  are  learning  to  maintain  sev- 
eral plots  of  farming  land  planted  with  oats  and  po- 
tatoes. This  they  are  doing  with  success,  and  with 
the  further  result  of  setting  a  good  example  to  the 
rest.  But  most  of  the  bucks  are  either  sullenly  or 
stupidly  clinging  to  the  shadow  and  the  memory  of 
the  life  that  is  gone. 

It  was  a  recollection  of  that  life  which  they  por- 
trayed for  us.  And  they  did  so  with  a  fervor,  an 
abundance  of  detail  and  memento,  and  with  a  splen- 
dor few  men  have  seen  equalled  in  recent  years — or 
ever  may  hope  to  witness  again. 

We  left  the  cars  at  Gleichen,  a  little  border  town 
which  depends  almost  wholly  upon  the  Blackfeet  and 
their  visitors  for  its  maintenance.  It  has  two  stores 
— one  where  the  Indians  get  credit  and  high  prices 
(and  at  which  the  red  men  deal),  and  one  at  which 
they  may  buy  at  low  rates  for  cash,  wherefore  they 
seldom  go  there.  It  has  two  hotels  and  a  half-dozen 
railway  men's  dwellings ,  and,  finally,  it  boasts  a  tiny 
little  station  or  barracks  of  the  North-west  Mounted 
Police,  wherein  the  lower  of  the  two  rooms  is  fitted 


1 8  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

with  a  desk,  and  hung  with  pistols,  guns,  handcuffs, 
and  cartridge  belts,  while  the  upper  room  contains  the 
cots  for  the  men  at  night. 

We  went  to  the  store  that  the  Indians  favor — just 
such  a  store  as  you  see  at  any  cross-roads  you  drive 
past  in  a  summer  s  outing  in  the  country — and  there 
were  half  a  dozen  Indians  beautifying  the  door-way 
and  the  interior,  like  magnified  majolica-ware  in  a 
crockery-shop.  They  were  standing  or  sitting  about 
with  thoughtful  expressions,  as  Indians  always  do 
when  they  go  shopping;  for  your  true  Indian  gener- 
ates such  a  contemplative  mood  when  he  is  about  to 
spend  a  quarter  that  one  would  fancy  he  must  be  the 
most  prudent  and  deliberate  of  men,  instead  of  what 
he  really  is — the  greatest  prodigal  alive  except  the 
negro.  These  bucks  might  easily  have  been  mistaken 
for  waxworks.  Unnaturally  erect,  with  arms  folded 
beneath  their  blankets,  they  stood  or  sat  without 
moving  a  limb  or  muscle.  Only  when  a  new-comer 
entered  did  they  stir.  Then  they  turned  their  heads 
deliberately  and  looked  at  the  visitor  fixedly,  as  eagles 
look  at  you  from  out  their  cages.  They  were  strap- 
ping fine  fellows,  each  bundled  up  in  a  colored  blank- 
et, flapping  cloth  leg-gear,  and  yellow  moccasins. 
Each  had  the  front  locks  of  his  hair  tied  in  an  up- 
right bunch,  like  a  natural  plume,  and  several  wore 
little  brass  rings,  like  baby  finger-rings,  around  certain 
side  locks  down  beside  their  ears. 

There  they  stood,  motionless  and  speechless,  wait- 
ing until  the  impulse  should  move  them  to  buy  what 
they  wanted,  with  the  same  deliberation  with  which 
they  had  waited  for  the  original   impulse  which  sent 


.CHARTERING    A    NATION 


19 


them  to  the  store.  If  Mr.  Frenchman,  who  kept  the 
store,  had  come  from  behind  his  counter,  EngUsh 
fashion,  and  had  said :  "  Come,  come ;  what  d'you 
want  ?  Speak  up  now,  and  be  quick  about  it.  No 
lounging  here.  Buy  or  get  out."  If  he  had  said 
that,  or  anything  Hke  it,  those  Indians  would  have 
stalked  out  of  his  place,  not  to  enter  it  again  for  a 
very  long  time,  if  ever.  Bartering  is  a  serious  and 
complex  performance  to  an  Indian,  and  you  might  as 
well  try  to  hurry  an  elephant  up  a  gang-plank  as  try 
to  quicken  an  Indian's  procedure  in  trading. 

We  purchased  of  the  Frenchman  a  chest  of  tea,  a 
great  bag  of  lump  sugar,  and  a  small  case  of  plug  to- 
bacco for  gifts  to  the  chief.  Then  we  hired  a  buck- 
board  wagon,  and  made  ready  for  the  journey  to  the 
reserve. 

The  road  to  the  reserve  lay  several  miles  over  the 
plains,  and  commanded  a  view  of  rolling  grass  land, 
like  a  brown  sea  whose  waves  were  petrified,  with 
here  and  there  a  group  of  sickly  wind-blown  trees  to 
break  the  resemblance.  The  road  was  a  mere  waofon 
track  and  horse-trail  through  the  grass,  but  it  was 
criss-crossed  with  the  once  deep  ruts  that  had  been 
worn  by  countless  herds  of  buffalo  seeking  water. 

Presently,  as  we  journeyed,  a  little  line  of  sand-hills 
came  into  view.  They  formed  the  Blackfoot  ceme- 
tery. We  saw  the  "  tepees  of  the  dead "  here  and 
there  on  the  knolls,  some  new  and  perfect,  some  old 
and  weather-stained,  some  showing  mere  tatters  of 
cotton  flapping  on  the  poles,  and  still  others  only 
skeleton  tents,  the  poles  remaining  and  the  cotton 
covering  gone  completely.    We  knew  what  we  would 


20  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

see  if  we  looked  into  those  "  dead  tepees  "  (being  care- 
ful to  approach  from  the  windward  side).  We  would 
see,  lying  on  the  ground  or  raised  upon  a  framework, 
a  bundle  that  would  be  narrow  at  top  and  bottom, 
and  broad  in  the  middle — an  Indian's  body  rolled  up 
in  a  sheet  of  cotton,  with  his  best  bead-vvork  and 
blanket  and  gun  in  the  bundle,  and  near  by  a  kettle 
and  some  dried  meat  and  corn-meal  against  his  feel- 
ing hungry  on  his  long  journey  to  the  hereafter.  As 
one  or  two  of  the  tepees  were  new,  we  expected  to 
see  some  family  in  mourning ;  and,  sure  enough,  when 
we  reached  the  great  sheer-sided  gutter  which  the 
Bow  River  has  dug  for  its  course  through  the  plains, 
we  halted  our  horse  and  looked  down  upon  a  lonely 
trio  of  tepees,  with  children  playing  around  them  and 
women  squatted  by  the  entrances.  Three  families 
had  lost  members,  and  were  sequestered  there  in  ab- 
ject surrender  to  grief. 

Those  tents  of  the  mourners  were  at  our  feet  as  we 
rode  southward,  down  in  the  river  gully,  where  the 
grass  was  green  and  the  trees  w-ere  leafy  and  thriv- 
ing; but  when  we  turned  our  faces  to  the  eastward, 
where  the  river  bent  around  a  great  promontory, 
what  a  sight  met  our  gaze !  There  stood  a  city  of 
tepees,  hundreds  of  them,  showing  white  and  yellow 
and  brown  and  red  against  the  clear  blue  sky.  A  si- 
lent and  lifeless  city  it  seemed,  for  we  were  too  far 
oH  to  see  the  people  or  to  hear  their  noises.  The 
great  huddle  of  little  pyramids  rose  abruptly  from  the 
level  bare  grass  against  the  flawless  sky,  not  like  one 
of  those  melancholy  new  treeless  towns  that  white 
men  arc  building  all  over  the  prairie,  but  rather  like 


•CHARTERING    A    NATION  21 

a  mosquito  fleet  becalmed  at  sea.  There  are  two 
camps  on  the  Blackfoot  Reserve,  the  North  Camp 
and  the  South  Camp,  and  this  town  of  tents  was  be- 
tween the  two,  and  was  composed  of  more  households 
than  both  together;  for  this  was  the  assembling  for 
the  sun-dance,  their  greatest  religious  festival,  and 
hither  had  come  Bloods,  Piegans,  and  Sarcis  as  well 
as  Blackfeet.  Only  the  mourners  kept  away ;  for 
here  were  to  be  echoed  the  greatest  ceremonials  of 
that  dead  past,  wherein  lives  dedicated  to  war  and  to 
the  chase  inspired  the  deeds  of  valor  which  each 
would  now  celebrate  anew  in  speech  or  song.  This 
was  to  be  the  anniversary  of  the  festival  at  which  the 
young  men  fastened  themselves  by  a  strip  of  flesh  in 
their  chests  to  a  sort  of  Maypole  rope,  and  tore  their 
flesh  apart  to  demonstrate  their  fitness  to  be  con- 
sidered braves.  At  this  feast  husbands  had  the  right 
to  confess  their  women,  and  to  cut  their  noses  off  if 
they  had  been  untrue,  and  if  they  yet  preferred  life  to 
the  death  they  richly  merited.  At  this  gala-time 
sacrifices  of  fingers  were  made  by  brave  men  to  the 
sun.  Then  every  warrior  boasted  of  his  prowess,  and 
the  young  beaus  feasted  their  eyes  on  gayly-clad 
maidens  the  while  they  calculated  for  what  number 
of  horses  they  could  be  purchased  of  their  parents. 
And  at  each  recurrence  of  this  wonderful  holiday- 
time  every  night  was  spent  in  feasting,  gorging,  and 
gambling.  In  short,  it  was  the  great  event  of  the 
Indian  year,  and  so  it  remains.  Even  now  you  may 
see  the  young  braves  undergo  the  torture ;  and  if  you 
may  not  see  the  faithless  wives  disciplined,  you  may 
at  least  perceive  a  score  who  have  been,  as  well  as 


22  OX    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

hear  the  mighty  boasting,  and  witness  the  dancing, 
ofamins:,  and  carousino^. 

We  turned  our  backs  towards  the  tented  field,  for 
we  had  not  vet  introduced  ourseh'es  to  Mr.  Mac^nus 
BeofSf,  the  Indian  accent  in  charsre  of  the  reserve.  We 
were  soon  within  his  official  enclosure,  where  a  pretty 
frame  house,  an  office  no  bigger  than  a  freight  car, 
and  a  roomy  barn  and  stable  were  all  overtopped  by 
a  central  fiag-staff,  and  shaded  by  flourishing  trees. 
Mr.  Begg  was  at  home,  and,  with  his  accomplished 
wife,  welcomed  us  in  such  a  hearty  manner  as  one 
could  hardly  have  expected,  even  where  white  folks 
were  so  "mighty  unsartin  "  to  appear  as  they  are  on 
the  plains.  The  agent's  house  without  is  like  any 
pretty  village  home  in  the  East ;  and  within,  the 
only  distinctive  features  are  a  number  of  ornamental 
mounted  wild-beast's  heads  and  a  room  whose  walls 
are  lined  about  with  rare  and  beautiful  Blackfoot 
curios  in  skin  and  stone  and  bead-work.  But,  to  our 
joy,  we  found  seated  in  that  room  the  famous  chief 
Old  Sun.  He  is  the  husband  of  the  most  remarkable 
Indian  squaw  in  America,  and  he  would  have  been 
Crowfoot's  successor  were  it  not  that  he  was  eighty- 
seven  years  of  age  when  the  Blackfoot  Caesar  died. 
As  chief  of  the  North  Blackfeet,  Old  Sun  boasts  the 
largest  personal  following  on  the  Canadian  plains, 
having  earned  his  popularity  by  his  fighting  record, 
his  commanding  manner,  his  eloquence,  and  by  that 
generosity  which  leads  him  to  give  away  his  rations 
and  his  presents.  No  man  north  of  Mexico  can 
dress  more  gorgeously  than  he  upon  occasion,  for 
he  still  owns  a  buckskin  outfit  beaded  to  the  value 


,  CHARTERING    A    NATION  23 

of  a  Worth  gown.  Moreover,  he  owns  a  red  coat, 
such  as  the  Government  used  to  give  only  to  great 
chiefs.  The  old  fellow  had  lost  his  vigor  when  we 
saw  him,  and  as  he  sat  wrapped  in  his  blanket  he 
looked  like  a  half-emptied  meal  bag  flung  on  a  chair. 
He  despises  English,  but  in  that  marvellous  Volapiik 
of  the  plains  called  the  sign  language  he  told  us 
that  his  teeth  were  gone,  his  hearing  was  bad,  his 
eyes  were  weak,  and  his  flesh  was  spare.  He  told 
his  age  also,  and  much  else  besides,  and  there  is  no 
one  who  reads  this  but  could  have  readily  under- 
stood his  eve^y  statement  and  sentiment,  conveyed 
solely  by  means  of  his  hands  and  fingers.  I  noticed 
that  he  looked  like  an  old  woman,  and  it  is  a  fact 
that  old  Indian  men  frequently  look  so.  Yet  no  one 
ever  saw  a  young  brave  whose  face  suggested  a 
woman's,  though  their  beardless  countenances  and 
long  hair  might  easily  create  that  appearance. 

Mr.  Remington  was  anxious  to  paint  Old  Sun  and 
his  squaw,  particularly  the  latter,  and  he  easily  ob- 
tained permission,  although  when  the  time  for  the 
mysterious  ordeal  arrived  next  day  the  old  chief  was 
greatly  troubled  in  his  superstitious  old  brain  lest 
some  mischief  would  befall  him  through  the  medium 
of  the  painting.  To  the  Indian  mind  the  sun,  which 
they  worship,  has  magical,  even  devilish,  powers,  and 
Old  Sun  developed  a  fear  that  the  orb  of  day  might 
"  work  on  his  picture  "  and  cause  him  to  die.  Fort- 
unately I  found  in  Mr.  L'Hereux,  the  interpreter,  a 
person  who  had  undergone  the  process  without  dire 
consequences,  was  willing  to  undergo  it  again,  and 
who  added  that  his  father  and  mother  had  submitted 


24  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

to  the  operation,  and  yet  had  lived  to  a  yellow  old 
age.  When  Old  Sun  brought  his  wife  to  sit  for  her 
portrait  I  put  all  etiquette  to  shame  in  staring  at  her, 
as  you  will  all  the  more  readily  believe  when  you 
know  something  of  her  history. 

Old  Sun's  wife  sits  in  the  council  of  her  nation — 
the  only  woman,  white,  red,  or  black,  of  whom  I  have 
ever  heard  who  enjoys  such  a  prerogative  on  this 
continent.  She  earned  her  peculiar  privileges,' if  any 
one  ever  earned  anything.  P^orty  or  more  years  ago 
she  was  a  Piegan  maiden  known  only  in  her  tribe, 
and  there  for  nothinor  more  than  her  o-ood  origin,  her 
comeliness,  and  her  consequent  value  in  horses.  She 
met  with  outrageous  fortune,  but  she  turned  it  to 
such  good  account  that  she  was  speedily  ennobled. 
She  was  at  home  in  a  little  camp  on  the  plains  one 
day,  and  had  wandered  away  from  the  tents,  when 
she  was  kidnapped.  It  was  in  this  wise :  other 
camps  were  scattered  near  there.  On  the  nio-ht 
before  the  day  of  her  adventure  a  band  of  Crows 
stole  a  number  of  horses  from  a  camp  of  the  Gros 
Ventres,  and  very  artfully  trailed  their  plunder  tow- 
ards and  close  to  the  Piegan  camp  before  they  turned 
and  made  their  way  to  their  own  lodges.  When  the 
Gros  Ventres  discovered  their  loss,  and  followed  the 
trail  that  seemed  to  lead  to  the  Piegan  camp,  the  girl 
and  her  father,  an  aged  chief,  were  at  a  distance  from 
their  tepees,  unarmed  and  unsuspecting-.  Down 
swooped  the  Gros  Ventres.  They  killed  and  scalped 
the  old  man,  and  then  their  chief  swung  the  youno- 
girl  upon  his  horse  behind  him,  and  binding  her  to 
him  with  thongs  of  buckskin,  dashed  off  triumphantly 


.CHARTERING    A    NATION  25 

for  his  own  village.  That  has  happened  to  many 
another  Indian  maiden,  most  of  whom  have  behaved 
as  would  a  plaster  image,  saving  a  few  days  of  weep- 
ing. Not  such  was  Old  Sun's  wife.  When  she  and 
her  captor  were  in  sight  of  the  Gros  Ventre  village, 
she  reached  forward  and  stole  the  chief's  scalping- 
knife  out  of  its  sheath  at  his  side.  With  it,  still  wet 
with  her  father's  blood,  she  cut  him  in  the  back 
through  to  the  heart.  Then  she  freed  his  body  from 
hers,  and  tossed  him  from  the  horse's  back.  Leaping 
to  the  ground  beside  his  bod3^  she  not  only  scalped 
him,  but  cut  off  his  right  arm  and  picked  up  his  gun, 
and  rode  madly  back  to  her  people,  chased  most  of 
the  way,  but  bringing  safely  with  her  the  three  great- 
est trophies  a  warrior  can  wrest  from  a  vanquished 
enemy.  Two  of  them  would  have  distinguished  any 
brave,  but  this  mere  village  maiden  came  with  all 
three.  From  that  day  she  has  boasted  the  right  to 
wear  three  eagle  feathers. 

Old  Sun  was  a  young  man  then,  and  when  he 
heard  of  this  feat  he  came  and  hitched  the  requisite 
number  of  horses  to  her  mother's  travois  poles 
beside  her  tent.  I  do  not  recall  how  many  steeds 
she  was  valued  at,  but  I  have  heard  of  very  high- 
priced  Indian  girls  who  had  nothing  except  their 
feminine  qualities  to  recommend  them.  In  one  case 
I  knew  that  a  young  man,  who  had  been  casting 
what  are  called  "  sheep's  eyes  "  at  a  maiden,  went  one 
day  and  tied  four  horses  to  her  father's  tent.  Then 
he  stood  around  and  waited,  but  there  was  no  sign 
from  the  tent.  Next  day  he  took  four  more,  and  so 
he  went  on  until  he  had  tied  sixteen  horses  to  the 


26  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

tepee.  At  the  least  they  were  worth  $20,  perhaps 
$30,  apiece.  At  that  the  maiden  and  her  people 
came  out,  and  received  the  young  man  so  graciously 
that  he  knew  he  was  "the  young  woman's  choice," 
as  we  say  in  civilized  circles,  sometimes  under  very 
similar  circumstances. 

At  all  events,  Old  Sun  was  rich  and  powerful,  and 
easily  got  the  savage  heroine  for  his  wife.  She  was 
admitted  to  the  Blackfoot  council  without  a  protest, 
and  has  since  proven  that  her  valor  was  not  sporadic, 
for  she  has  taken  the  war-path  upon  occasion,  and 
other  scalps  have  gone  to  her  credit. 

After  a  while  we  drove  over  to  where  the  field  lay 
littered  with  tepees.  There  seemed  to  be  no  order  in 
the  arrangrement  of  the  tents  as  we  looked  at  the 
scene  from  a  distance.  Gradually  the  symptoms  of  a 
great  stir  and  activity  were  observable,  and  we  saw 
men  and  horses  running  about  at  one  side  of  the 
nomad  settlement,  as  well  as  hundreds  of  human 
figures  moving  in  the  camp.  Then  a  nearer  view 
brought  out  the  fact  that  the  tepees,  which  were  of 
many  sizes,  were  apt  to  be  white  at  the  base,  reddish 
half-way  up,  and  dark  brown  at  the  top.  The  smoke 
of  the  fires  within,  and  the  rain  and  sun  without, 
paint  all  the  cotton  or  canvas  tepees  like  that,  and 
very  pretty  is  the  effect.  When  closer  still,  we  saw 
that  each  tepee  was  capped  with  a  rude  crown 
formed  of  pole  ends  —  the  ends  of  the  ribs  of  each 
structure;  that  some  of  the  tents  were  gayly  orna- 
mented with  great  geometric  patterns  in  red,  black, 
and  yellow  around  the  bottoms;  and  that  others  bore 
upon  their  sides  rude  but  highly  colored  figures  of 


,     CHARTERING    A    NATION  2/ 

animals — the  clan  sign  of  the  family  within.  Against 
very  many  of  the  frail  dwellings  leaned  a  travois,  the 
triangle  of  poles  which  forms  the  wagon  of  the  Ind- 
ians. There  were  three  or  four  very  large  tents, 
the  headquarters  of  the  chiefs  of  the  soldier  bands 
and  of  the  head  chief  of  the  nation ;  and  there  was 
one  spotless  new  tent,  with  a  pretty  border  painted 
around  its  base,  and  the  figure  of  an  animal  on  either 
side.  It  was  the  new  establishment  of  a  bride  and 
groom.  A  hubbub  filled  the  air  as  we  drew  still 
nearer;  not  any  noise  occasioned  by  our  approach, 
but  the  ordinary  uproar  of  the  camp — the  barking  of 
dogs,  the  shouts  of  frolicking  children,  the  yells  of 
young  men  racing  on  horseback  and  of  others  driv- 
ing in  their  ponies.  When  we  drove  between  the 
first  two  tents  we  saw  that  the  camp  had  been  sys- 
tematically arranged  in  the  form  of  a  rude  circle, 
with  the  tents  in  bunches  around  a  great  central 
space,  as  large  as  Madison  Square  if  its  corners  were 
rounded  off. 

We  were  ushered  into  the  presence  of  Three  Bulls, 
in  the  biggest  of  all  the  tents.  By  common  consent 
he  was  presiding  as  chief  and  successor  to  Crowfoot, 
pending  the  formal  election,  which  was  to  take  place 
at  the  feast  of  the  sun -dance.  European  royalty 
could  scarcely  have  managed  to  invest  itself  with 
more  dignity  or  access  to  its  presence  with  more 
formality  than  hedged  about  this  blanketed  king. 
He  had  assembled  his  chiefs  and  headmen  to  greet 
us,  for  we  possessed  the  eminence  of  persons  bearing 
gifts.  He  was  in  mourning  for  Crowfoot,  who  was  his 
brother,  and  for  a  daughter  besides,  and  the  form  of 


28  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

expression  he  gave  to  his  grief  caused  him  to  wear 
nothing  but  a  flannel  shirt  and  a  breech -cloth,  in 
which  he  sat  with  his  big  brown  legs  bare  and 
crossed  beneath  him.  He  is  a  powerful  man,  with 
an  uncommonly  large  head,  and  his  facial  features,  all 
generously  moulded,  indicate  amiability,  liberality, 
and  considerable  intelligence.  Of  middle  age,  smooth- 
skinned,  and  plump,  there  was  little  of  the  savage  in 
his  looks  beyond  what  came  of  his  long  black  hair. 
It  was  purposely  wore  unkempt  and  hanging  in  his 
eyes,  and  two  locks  of  it  were  bound  with  many 
brass  rings.  When  we  came  upon  him  our  gifts  had 
already  been  received  and  distributed,  mainly  to 
three  or  four  relatives.  But  though  the  others  sat 
about  portionless,  all  were  alike  stolid  and  statuesque, 
and  whatever  feelings  agitated  their  breasts,  whether 
of  satisfaction  or  disappointment,  were  equally  hid- 
den by  all. 

When  we  entered  the  big  tepee  we  saw  twenty- 
one  men  seated  in  a  circle  against  the  wall  and  facing 
the  open  centre,  where  the  ground  was  blackened  by 
the  ashes  of  former  fires.  Three  Bulls  sat  exactly 
opposite  the  queer  door,  a  horseshoe -shaped  hole 
reaching  two  feet  above  the  ground,  and  extended 
by  the  partly  loosened  lacing  that  held  the  edges  of 
the  tent-covering  together.  Mr.  L'Hereux,  the  in- 
terpreter, made  a  long  speech  in  introducing  each  of 
us.  We  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  ring,  and  the 
chief  punctuated  the  interpreter's  remarks  with  that 
queer  Indian  grunt  which  it  has  ever  been  the  cus- 
tom to  spell  "  ugh,"  but  which  you  may  imitate  ex- 
actly if  you  will  try  to  say  "  Ha  "  through  your  nose 


CHARTERING    A    NATION  29 

while  your  mouth  is  closed.  As  Mr.  L'Hereux  is  a 
great  talker,  and  is  of  a  poetic  nature,  there  is  no 
telling  what  wild  fancy  of  his  active  brain  he  in 
vented  concerning  us,  but  he  made  a  friendly  talk, 
and  that  was  what  we  wanted.  As  each  speech 
closed.  Three  Bulls  lurched  forward  just  enough  to 
make  the  putting  out  of  his  hand  a  gracious  act,  yet 
not  enough  to  disturb  his  dignity.  After  each  salu- 
tation he  pointed  out  a  seat  for  the  one  with  whom 
he  had  shaken  hands.  He  announced  to  the  council 
in  their  language  that  we  were  good  men,  whereat 
the  council  uttered  a  single  "  Ha"  through  its  twenty- 
one  noses.  If  you  had  seen  the  rigid  stateliness  of 
Three  Bulls,  and  had  felt  the  frigid  self-possession  of 
the  twenty-one  ramrod-mannered  under-chiefs,  as  well 
as  the  deference  which  was  in  the  tones  of  the  other 
white  men  in  our  company,  you  would  comprehend' 
that  we  were  made  to  feel  at  once  honored  and  sub- 
ordinate. Altogether  we  made  an  odd  picture:  a 
circle  of  men  seated  tailor  fashion,  and  my  own  and 
Mr.  Remington's  black  shoes  marring  the  gaudy  ring 
of  yellow  moccasins  in  front  of  the  savages,  as  they 
sat  in  their  colored  blankets  and  fringed  and  be- 
feathered  gear,  each  with  the  calf  of  one  leg  crossed 
before  the  shin  of  the  other. 

But  L'Hereux's  next  act  after  introducing  us  was 
one  that  seemed  to  indicate  perfect  indifference  to  the 
feelings  of  this  august  body.  No  one  but  he,  who 
had  spent  a  quarter  of  a  century  with  them  in  closest 
intimacy,  could  have  acted  as  he  proceeded  to  do. 
He  cast  his  eyes  on  the  ground,  and  saw  the  mounds 
of  sugar,  tobacco,  and  tea  heaped  before  only  a  cer- 


30  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

tain  few  Indians.  "  Now  who  has  done  dose  t'ing?" 
he  inquired.  "  Oh,  dat  vill  nevaire  do  'tall.  You 
haf  done  dose  t'ing,  Mistaire  Begg?  No?  Who 
den?  Chief?  Nevaire  mind.  I  make  him  all  rount 
again,  vaire  deeferent.  You  shall  see  somet'ing." 
With  that,  and  yet  without  ceasing  to  talk  for  an 
instant,  now  in  Indian  and  now  in  his  English,  he 
began  to  dump  the  tea  back  again  into  the  chest, 
the  sugar  into  the  bag,  and  the  plug  tobacco  in  a 
heap  by  itself.  Not  an  Indian  moved  a  muscle — 
unless  I  was  right  in  my  suspicion  that  the  corners 
of  Three  Bulls'  mouth  curved  upward  slightly,  as  if 
he  were  about  to  smile.  "  Vot  kind  of  wa-a-y  to  do-o 
somet'ing  is  dat?"  the  interpreter  continued,  in  his 
sing-song  tone.  "You  moos'  haf  one  maje-dome 
[major-domo]  if  you  shall  try  satisfy  dose  Engine." 
He  always  called  the  Indians  "dose  Engine."  "  Dat 
chief  gif  all  dose  present  to  his  broders  und  cousins, 
vhich  are  in  his  famille.  Now  you  shall  see  me,  vot 
I  shall  do."  Taking  his  hat,  he  began  filling  it,  now 
with  sugar  and  now  with  tea,  and  emptying  it  before 
some  six  or  seven  chiefs.  Finally,  when  a  double 
share  was  left,  he  2:ave  both  basf  and  chest  to  Three 
Bulls,  to  whom  he  also  gave  all  the  tobacco.  "  Such 
tam-fool  peezness,"  he  went  on,  "  I  do  not  see  in  all 
my  life.  I  make  visitation  to  de  t'ree  soljier  chief 
vhich  shall  make  one  afrand  darnce  for  dose  gentle- 
men,  und  here  is  for  dose  soljier  chief  not  anyt'ing 
'tall,  vhile  cveryt'ing  was  going  to  one  lot  of  beggaire 
relation  of  T'ree  Bull.  Dat  is  what  I  call  one  tam- 
fool  way  to  do  somet'ing." 

The  redistribution  accomplished.  Three  Bulls  wore 


CHARTERING    A    NATION  33 

a  grin  of  satisfaction,  and  one  chief  who  had  lost  a 
great  pile  of  presents,  and  who  got  nothing  at  all  by 
the  second  division,  stalked  solemnly  out  of  the  tent, 
through  not  until  Three  Bulls  had  tossed  the  plugs 
of  tobacco  to  all  the  men  around  the  circle,  precisely 
as  he  might  have  thrown  bones  to  dogs,  but  always 
observing  a  certain  order  in  making  each  round  with 
the  plugs.  All  were  thus  served  according  to  their 
rank.  Then  Three  Bulls  rummaged  with  one  hand 
behind  him  in  the  grass,  and  fetched  forward  a  great 
pipe  with  a  stone  bowl  and  wooden  handle — a  sort 
of  chopping-block  of  wood — and  a  large  long-bladed 
knife.  Taking  a  plug  of  tobacco  in  one  hand  and  the 
knife  in  the  other,  he  pared  off  enough  tobacco  to  fill 
the  pipe.  Then  he  filled  it,  and  passed  it,  stem  fore- 
most, to  a  young  man  on  the  left-hand  side  of  the  tepee. 
The  superior  chiefs  all  sat  on  the  right-hand  side. 
The  young  man  knew  that  he  had  been  chosen  to 
perform  the  menial  act  of  lighting  the  pipe,  and  he 
lighted  it,  pulling  two  or  three  whiffs  of  smoke  to 
insure  a  good  coal  of  fire  in  it  before  passing  it  back 
— through  why  it  was  not  considered  a  more  menial 
task  to  cut  the  tobacco  and  fill  the  pipe  than  to  light 
it  I  don't  know. 

Three  Bulls  puffed  the  pipe  for  a  m.oment,  and 
then  turning  the  stem  from  him,  pointed  it  at  the 
chief  next  in  importance,  and  to  that  personage  the 
symbol  of  peace  was  passed  from  hand  to  hand. 
When  that  chief  had  drawn  a  few  whiffs,  he  sent  the 
pipe  back  to  Three  Bulls,  who  then  indicated  to 
whom  it  should  go  next.  Thus  it  went  dodging 
about  the  circle  like  a  marble  on  a  bagatelle  board. 


34  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

When  it  came  to  me,  I  hesitated  a  moment  whether 
or  not  to  smoke  it,  but  the  desire  to  be  poHte  out- 
weighed any  other  prompting,  and  I  sucked  the  pipe 
until  some  of  the  Indians  cried  out  that  I  was  "  a 
good  fellow." 

While  all  smoked  and  many  talked,  I  noticed  that 
Three  Bulls  sat  upon  a  soft  seat  formed  of  his 
blanket,  at  one  end  of  which  was  one  of  those  wicker- 
work  contrivances,  like  a  chair  back,  upon  which  In- 
dians lean  when  seated  upon  the  ground.  I  noticed 
also  that  one  harsh  criticism  passed  upon  Three 
Bulls  was  just;  that  was  that  when  he  spoke,  others 
might  interrupt  him.  It  was  said  that  even  women 
"talked  back"  to  him  at  times  when  he  was  haransf- 
uing  his  people.  Since  no  one  spoke  when  Crowfoot 
talked,  the  comparison  between  him  and  his  prede- 
cessor was  injurious  to  him ;  but  it  was  Crowfoot 
who  named  Three  Bulls  for  the  chieftainship.  Be- 
sides, Three  Bulls  had  the  largest  following  (under 
that  of  the  too  aged  Old  Sun),  and  was  the  most 
generous  chief  and  ablest  politician  of  all.  Then, 
again,  the  Government  supported  him  with  whatever 
its  influence  amounted  to.  This  was  because  Three 
Bulls  favored  agricultural  employment  for  the  tribe, 
and  was  himself  cultivating  a  patch  of  potatoes.  He 
was  in  many  other  ways  the  man  to  lead  in  the  new 
era,  as  Crowfoot  had  been  for  the  era  that  was  past. 

When  we  retired  from  the  presence  of  the  chief,  I 
asked  Mr.  L'Hereux  how  he  had  dared  to  take  back 
the  presents  made  to  the  Indians  and  then  distribute 
them  differently.  The  queer  Frenchman  said,  in  his 
indescribably  confident,  jaunty  way  : 


CHARTERING    A    NATION  35 

"  Why,  dat  is  how  you  mus'  do  wid  dose  Engine. 
Nevaire  ask  one  of  dose  Engine  anything,  but  do 
dose  t'ing  which  are  right,  and  at  de  same  time  make 
explanashion  what  you  are  doing.  Den  dose  Engine 
can  say  no  t'ing  'tall.  But  if  you  first  make  explana- 
shion and  den  try  to  do  somet'ng,  you  will  find  one 
grand  trouble.  Can  you  explain  dis  and  dat  to  one 
hive  of  de  bees  ?  Well,  de  hive  of  de  bee  is  like 
dose  Engine  if  you  shall  talk  widout  de  promp' 
action." 

He  said,  later  on,  "  Dose  Engine  are  children,  and 
mus'  not  haf  consideration  like  mans  and  women." 

The  news  of  our  generosity  ran  from  tent  to  tent, 
and  the  Black  Soldier  band  sent  out  a  herald  to  cry 
the  news  that  a  war-dance  was  to  be  held  immedi- 
ately.  As  immediately  means  to  the  Indian  mind 
an  indefinite  and  very  enduring  period,  I  amused  my- 
self by  poking  about  the  village,  in  tents  and  among 
groups  of  men  or  women,  wherever  chance  led  me. 
The  herald  rode  from  side  to  side  of  the  enclosure, 
yelling  like  a  New  York  fruit  peddler.  He  was 
mounted  on  a  bay  pony,  and  was  fantastically  cos- 
tumed with  feathers  and  war-paint.  Of  course  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  who  had  been  in-doors,  so  to 
speak,  now  came  out  of  the  tepees,  and  a  mighty 
bustle  enlivened  the  scene.  The  worst  thing  about 
the  camp  was  the  abundance  of  snarling  cur-dogs. 
It  was  not  safe  to  walk  about  the  camp  without  a 
cane  or  whip,  on  account  of  these  dogs. 

The  Blackfeet  are  poor  enough,  in  all  conscience, 
from  nearly  every  stand-point  from  which  we  judge 
civilized  communities,  but  their  tribal  possessions  in- 


INDIAN   MOTHER  AND   BOY 


elude  several  horses  to  each  head  of  a  family ;  and 
though  the  majority  of  their  ponies  would  fetch  no 
more  than  $20  apiece  out  there,  even  this  gives  them 
more  wealth  per  capita  than  many  civilized  peoples 
can  boast.  They  have  managed,  also,  to  keep  much 
of  the  savage  paraphernalia  of  other  days  in  the  form 
of  buckskin  clothes,  elaborate  bead-work,  eagle  head- 
dresses, good  guns,  and  the  outlandish  adornments  of 
their  chiefs  and  medicine-men.  Hundreds  of  miles 
from  any  except  such  small  and  distant  towns  as  Cal- 
gary and  Medicine  Hat,  and  kept  on  the  reserve  as 
much  as  possible,  there  has  come  to  them  less  damage 
by  whiskey  and  white  men's  vices  than  perhaps  most 
other  tribes  have  suffered.  Therefore  it  was  still 
possible  for  me  to  see  in  some  tents  the  squaws  at 
work  painting  the  clan  signs  on  stretched  skins,  and 
making  bead-work  for  moccasins,  pouches,  "chaps," 
and  the  rest.  And  in  one  tepee  I  found  a  young 
and   rather  pretty  girl   wearing  a  suit   of  buckskin, 


CHARTERING    A    NATION 


37 


such  as  Cooper  and  all  the  past  historians  of  the  Ind- 
ian knew  as  the  conventional  every-day  attire  of  the 
red-skin.  I  say  I  saw  the  girl  in  a  tent,  but,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  she  passed  me  out-of-doors,  and  with  true 
feminine  art  managed  to  allow  her  blanket  to  fall 
open  for  just  the  instant  it  took  to  disclose  the  pre- 
cious dress  beneath  it.  I  asked  to  be  taken  into  the 
tent  to  which  she  went,  and  there,  at  the  interpreter's 
request,  she  threw  off  her  blanket,  and  stood,  with  a 
little  display  of  honest  coyness,  dressed  like  the  tra- 
ditional and  the  theatrical  belle  of  the  wilderness. 
The  soft  yellowish  leather,  the  heavy  fringe  upon 
the  arms,  seams,  and  edges  of  the  garment,  her  beau- 
tiful beaded  leggings  and  moccasins,  formed  so  many 
parts  of  a  very  charming  picture.  For  herself,  her 
face  was  comely,  but  her  figure  was — an  Indian's. 
The  figure  of  the  typical  Indian  woman  shows  few 
graceful  curves. 

The  reader  will  inquire  whether  there  was  any 
real  beauty,  as  we  judge  it,  among  these  Indians. 
Yes,  there  was ;  at  least  there  were  good  looks  if 
there  was  not  beauty.  I  saw  perhaps  a  dozen  fine- 
looking  men,  half  a  dozen  attractive  girls,  and  some- 
thing like  a  hundred  children  of  varying  degrees  of 
comeliness  —  pleasing,  pretty,  or  beautiful.  I  had 
some  jolly  romps  with  the  children,  and  so  came  to 
know  that  their  faces  and  arms  met  my  touch  with 
the  smoothness  and  softness  of  the  flesh  of  our  own 
little  ones  at  home.  I  was  surprised  at  this ;  indeed, 
the  skin  of  the  boys  was  of  the  texture  of  velvet. 
The  madcap  urchins,  what  riotous  fun  they  were 
having !     They  flung  arrows  and  darts,  ran  races  and 


38  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

wrestled,  and  in  some  of  their  play  they  fairly  swarmed 
all  over  one  another,  until  at  times  one  lad  would  be 
buried  in  the  thick  of  a  writhins^  mass  of  legs  and 
arms  several  feet  in  depth.  Some  of  the  boys  wore 
only  "  G-strings  "  (as,  for  some  reason,  the  breech- 
clout  is  commonly  called  on  the  prairie),  but  others 
were  wrapped  in  old  blankets,  and  the  larger  ones 
were  already  wearing  the  Blackfoot  plume-lock,  or 
tuft  of  hair  tied  and  trained  to  stand  erect  above  the 
forehead.  The  babies  within  the  tepees  were  clad 
only  in  their  complexions. 

The  result  of  an  hour  of  waiting  on  our  part  and 
of  yelling  on  the  part  of  the  herald  resulted  in  a  war- 
dance,  not  very  different  in  itself  from  the  dances  we 
have  most  of  us  seen  at  Wild  West  shows.  An  im- 
mense tomtom  as  bisf  as  the  larQ^est-sized  bass-drum 

O  O  1 

was  set  up  between  four  poles,  around  which  colored 
cloths  were  wrapped,  and  from  the  tops  of  which 
the  same  gay  stuff  floated  on  the  wind  in  bunches 
of  party-colored  ribbons.  Around  this  squatted 
four  young  braves,  who  pounded  the  drum -head 
and  chanted  a  tune,  which  rose  and  fell  between 
the  shrillest  and  the  deepest  notes,  but  which  con- 
sisted of  simple  monosyllabic  sounds  repeated  thou- 
sands of  times.  The  interpreter  said  that  originally 
the  Indians  had  words  to  their  songs,  but  these  were 
forgotten  no  man  knows  when,  and  only  the  so-called 
tunes  (and  the  tradition  that  there  once  were  words 
for  them)  are  perpetuated.  At  all  events,  the  four 
braves  beat  the  drum  and  chanted,  until  presently  a 
young  warrior,  hideous  with  warpaint,  and  carrying  a 
shield  and  a  tomahawk,  came  out  of  a  tepee  and  be- 


^k 


OPENING   OF   THE   SOLDIER   CLAN   DANCE 


CHARTERING    A    NATION  4I 

gan  the  dancing.  It  was  the  stiff-legged  hopping,  first 
on  one  foot  and  then  on  the  other,  which  all  savages 
appear  to  deem  the  highest  form  the  terpsichorean 
art  can  take.  In  the  course  of  a  few  circles  around 
the  tomtom  he  began  shouting  of  valorous  deeds  he 
never  had  performed,  for  he  was  too  young  to  have 
ridden  after  buffalo  or  into  battle.  Presently  he  pre- 
tended to  see  upon  the  ground  something  at  once 
fascinating  and  awesome.  It  was  the  trail  of  the 
enemy.  Then  he  danced  furiously  and  more  lim- 
berly,  tossing  his  head  back,  shaking  his  hatchet  and 
many-tailed  shield  high  aloft,  and  yelling  that  he  was 
following  the  foe,  and  would  not  rest  while  a  skull 
and  a  scalp-lock  remained  in  conjunction  among 
them.  He  was  joined  by  three  others,  and  all  danced 
and  yelled  like  madmen.  At  the  last  the  leader  came 
to  a  sort  of  standard  made  of  a  stick  and  some  cloth, 
tore  it  out  from  where  it  had  been  thrust  in  the 
ground,  and  holding  it  far  above  his  head,  pranced 
once  around  the  circle,  and  thus  ended  the  dance. 

The  novelty  and  interest  in  the  celebration  rested 
in  the  surroundings — the  great  circle  of  tepees;  the 
braves  in  their  blankets  stalking  hither  and  thither; 
the  dogs,  the  horses,  the  intrepid  riders,  dashing 
across  the  view.  More  strange  still  was  the  solemn 
line  of  the  medicine-men,  who,  for  some  reason  not 
explained  to  me,  sat  in  a  row  with  their  backs  to  the 
dancers  a  city  block  away,  and  crooned  a  low  gut- 
tural accompaniment  to  the  tomtom.  But  still  more 
interesting  were  the  boys,  of  all  grades  of  childhood, 
who  looked  on,  while  not  a  woman  remained  in  siofht. 
The  larger  boys  stood  about  in  groups,  watching  the 


42 


ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 


spectacle  with  eyes  afire  with  admiration,  but  the 
little  fellows  had  flung  themselves  on  their  stomachs 
in  a  row,  and  were  supporting  their  chubby  faces 
upon  their  little  brown  hands,  while  their  elbows 
rested  on  the  grass,  forming  a  sort  of  orchestra  row 
of  Lilliputian  spectators. 

We  arranged  for  a  great  spectacle  to  be  gotten  up 
on  the  next  afternoon,  and  were  promised  that  it 
should  be  as  notable  for  the  numbers  participating 
in  it  and  for  the  trappings  to  be  displayed  as  any  the 
Blackfeet  had  ever  given  upon  their  reserve.  The 
Indians  spent  the  entire  night  in  carousing  over  the 
gift  of  tea,  and  we  knew  that  if  they  were  true  to 
most  precedents  they  would  brew  and  drink  every 
drop  of  it.  Possibly  some  took  it  with  an  admixture 
of  tobacco  and  wild  currant  to  make  them  drunk,  or, 
in  reality,  very  sick — which  is  much  the  same  thing 
to  a  reservation  Indian.  The  compounds  which  the 
average  Indian  will  swallow  in  the  hope  of  imitating 
the  effects  of  whiskey  are  such  as  to  tax  the  credulity 
of  those  who  hear  of  them.  A  certain  patent  "pain- 
killer" ranks  almost  as  high  as  whiskey  in  their  esti- 
mation; but  Worcestershire  sauce  and  gunpowder, 
or  tea,  tobacco,  and  wild  currant,  are  not  at  all  to  be 
despised  when  alcohol,  or  the  money  to  get  it  with, 
is  wanting.  I  heard  a  characteristic  story  about  these 
red  men  while  I  was  visiting  them.  All  who  are 
familiar  with  them  know  that  if  medicine  is  given 
them  to  take  in  small  portions  at  certain  intervals 
they  are  morally  sure  to  swallow  it  all  at  once,  and 
that  the  sicker  it  makes  them,  the  more  they  will 
value  it.     On  the  Blackfoot  Reserve,  only  a  short  time 


__3^/f.''^f-f/f 


SKETCH    IN    THE    SOLDIER   CLAN    DANCE 


ago,  our  gentle  and  insinuating  Sedlitz-powders  were 
classed  as  children's  stuff,  but  now  they  have  leaped 
to  the  front  rank  as  powerful  medicines.  This  is  be- 
cause some  white  man  showed  the  Indian  how  to 
take  the  soda  and  magnesia  first,  and  then  swallow 
the  tartaric  acid.  They  do  this,  and  when  the  ex- 
plosion follows,  and  the  gases  burst  from  their  mouths 
and  noses,  they  pull  themselves  together  and  remark, 
"  Ugh  !  him  heap  good." 

On  the  morning  of  the  day  of  the  great  spectacle  I 
rode  with  Mr.  Begg  over  to  the  ration-house  to  see  the 
meat  distributed.  The  dust  rose  in  clouds  above  all 
the  trails  as  the  cavalcade  of  men,  women,  children, 
travoises  and  dogs,  approached  the  station.  Men 
were  few  in  the  disjointed  lines;   most  of  them  sent 


44  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

their  women  or  children.  All  rode  astraddle,  some 
on  saddles  and  some  bareback.  As  all  urged  their 
horses  in  the  Indian  fashion,  which  is  to  whip  them 
unceasingly,  and  prod  them  constantly  with  spurless 
heels,  the  bobbing  movement  of  the  riders'  heads  and 
the  gymnastics  of  their  legs  produced  a  queer  scene. 
Here  and  there  a  travois  was  trailed  along  by  a  horse 
or  a  dog,  but  the  majority  of  the  pensioners  were 
content  to  carry  their  meat  in  bags  or  otherwise  upon 
their  horses.  While  the  slaus^hterins^  went  on,  and 
after  that,  when  the  beef  was  being  chopped  up  into 
junks,  I  sat  in  the  meat-contractor's  ofifice,  and  saw 
the  bucks,  squaws,  and  children  come,  one  after 
another,  to  beg.  I  could  not  help  noticing  that  all 
were  treated  with  marked  and  uniform  kindness,  and 
I  learned  that  no  one  ever  struck  one  of  the  Indians, 
or  suffered  himself  to  lose  his  temper  with  them.  A 
few  of  the  men  asked  for  blankets,  but  the  squaws 
and  the  children  wanted  soap.  It  was  said  that  when 
they  first  made  their  acquaintance  with  this  symbol 
of  civilization  they  mistook  it  for  an  article  of  diet, 
but  that  now  they  use  it  properly  and  prize  it.  When 
it  was  announced  that  the  meat  was  ready,  the  butch- 
ers threw  open  an  aperture  in  the  wall  of  the  ration- 
house,  and  the  Indians  huddled  before  it  as  if  they 
had  flung  themselves  against  the  house  in  a  mass. 
I  have  seen  boys  do  the  same  thing  at  the  opening 
of  a  ticket  window  for  the  sale  of  gallery  seats  in  a 
theatre.  There  was  no  fighting  or  quarrelling,  but 
every  Indian  pushed  steadily  and  silently  with  all  his 
or  her  might.  When  one  got  his  share  he  tore  him- 
self away  from  the  crowd  as  briers  are  pulled  out  of 


CHARTERING    A    NATION  45 

hairy  cloth.  They  are  a  hungry  and  an  economical 
people.  They  bring  pails  for  the  beef  blood,  and 
they  carry  home  the  hoofs  for  jelly.  After  a  steer 
has  been  butchered  and  distributed,  only  his  horns 
and  his  paunch  remain. 

The  sun  blazed  down  on  the  great  camp  that  af- 
ternoon and  glorified  the  place  so  that  it  looked  like 
a  miniature  Switzerland  of  snowy  peaks.  But  it  was 
hot,  and  blankets  were  stretched  from  the  tent  tops, 
and  the  women  sat  under  them  to  catch  the  air  and 
escape  the  heat.  The  salaried  native  policeman  of 
the  reserve,  wearing  a  white  stove-pipe  hat  with 
feathers,  and  a  ridiculous  blue  coat,  and  Heaven 
alone  knows  what  other  absurdities,  rode  around, 
boasting  of  deeds  he  never  performed,  while  a  white 
cur  made  him  all  the  more  ridiculous  by  chasing  him 
and  yelping  at  his  horse's  tail. 

And  then  came  the  grand  spectacle.  The  vast 
plain  was  forgotten,  and  the  great  campus  within  the 
circle  of  tents  was  transformed  into  a  theatre.  The 
scene  was  a  setting  of  white  and  red  tents  that  threw 
their  clear-cut  outlines  against  a  matchless  blue  sky. 
The  audience  was  composed  of  four  white  men  and 
the  Indian  boys,  who  were  flung  about  by  the  startled 
""horses  they  were  holding  for  us.  The  players  were 
the  gorgeous  cavalrymen  of  nature,  circling  before 
their  women  and  old  men  and  children,  themselves 
plumed  like  unheard-of  tropical  birds,  the  others 
displaying  the  minor  splendor  of  the  kaleidoscope. 
The  play  was  "The  Pony  War -dance,  or  the  De- 
parture for  Battle."  The  acting  was  fierce ;  not  like 
the  conduct  of  a  mimic  battle  on  our  stage,  but  per- 


46  ON  Canada's  frontier 

formed  with  the  desperate  zest  of  men  who  hope  for 
distinction  in  war,  and  may  not  trifle  about  it.  It 
had  the  earnestness  of  a  challenged  man  who  tries 
the  foils  with  a  tutor.  It  was  impressive,  inspiring, 
at  times  wildly  exciting. 

There  were  threescore  young  men  in  the  brilliant 
cavalcade.  They  rode  horses  that  were  as  wild  as 
themselves.  Their  evolutions  were  rude,  but  mag- 
nificent. Now  they  dashed  past  us  in  single  file,  and 
next  they  came  helter-skelter,  like  cattle  stampeding. 
For  a  while  they  rode  around  and  around,  as  on  a 
race-course,  but  at  times  they  deserted  the  enclosure, 
parted  into  small  bands,  and  were  hidden  behind  the 
curtains  of  their  own  dust,  presently  to  reappear  with 
a  mad  rush,  yelling  like  maniacs,  firing  their  pieces, 
and  brandishing  their  arms  and  their  finery  wildly  on 
high.  The  orchestra  was  composed  of  seven  tom- 
toms that  had  been  dried  taut  before  a  camp  fire. 
The  old  men  and  the  chiefs  sat  in  a  semicircle  be- 
hind the  drummers  on  the  ground. 

All  the  tribal  heirlooms  were  in  the  display,  the 
cherished  gewgaws,  trinkets,  arms,  apparel,  and  finery 
they  had  saved  from  the  fate  of  which  they  will  not 
admit  they  are  themselves  the  victims.  I  never  saw 
an  old-time  picture  of  a  type  of  savage  red  man  or  of 
an  extravagance  of  their  costuming  that  was  not  re- 
vived in  this  spectacle.  It  was  as  if  the  plates  in  my 
old  school-books  and  novels  and  tales  of  adventure 
were  all  animated  and  passing  before  me.  The  tra- 
ditional Indian  with  the  eagle  plumes  from  crown  to 
heels  was  there;  so  was  he  with  the  buffalo  horns 
""rowins:  out  of  his  skull ;  so  were  the  idyllic  braves 


.CHARTERING    A    NATION 


49 


in  yellow  buckskin  fringed  at  every  point.  The  shin- 
ing bodies  of  men,  bare  naked,  and  frescoed  like  a 
Bowery  bar-room,  were  not  lacking;  neither  were 
those  who  wore  masses  of  splendid  embroidery  with 
colored  beads.  But  there  were  as  many  peculiar 
costumes  which  I  never  had  seen  pictured.  And 
not  any  two  men  or  any  two  horses  were  alike.  As 
barber  poles  are  covered  with  paint,  so  were  many  of 
these  choice  steeds  of  the  nation.  Some  were  spotted 
all  over  with  daubs  of  white,  and  some  with  every 
color  obtainable.  Some  were  branded  fifty  times 
with  the  white  hand,  the  symbol  of  peace,  but  others 
bore  the  red  hand  and  the  white  hand  in  alternate 
prints.  There  were  horses  painted  with  the  figures 
of  horses  and  of  serpents  and  of  foxes.  To  some 
saddles  were  affixed  colored  blankets  or  cloths  that 
fell  upon  the  ground  or  lashed  the  air,  according  as 
the  horse  cantered  or  raced.  One  horse  was  hung 
all  round  with  great  soft  woolly  tails  of  some  white 
material.     Sleigh-bells  were  upon  several. 

Only  half  a  dozen  men  wore  hats — mainly  cowboy 
hats  decked  with  feathers.  Many  carried  rifles,  which 
they  used  with  one  hand.  Others  brought  out  bows 
and  arrows,  lances  decked  with  feathers  or  ribbons, 
poles  hung  with  colored  cloths,  great  shields  brill- 
iantly painted  and  fringed.  Every  visible  inch  of 
each  warrior  was  painted,  the  naked  ones  being 
ringed,  streaked,  and  striped  from  head  to  foot.  I 
would  have  to  catalogue  the  possessions  of  the  whole 
nation  to  tell  all  that  they  wore  between  the  brass 
rings  in  their  hair  and  the  cartridge-belts  at  their 
waists,  and  thus  down  to  their  beautiful  moccasins. 


50  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

Two  strange  features  further  distinguished  their 
pageant.  One  was  the  appearance  of  two  negro 
minstrels  upon  one  horse.  Both  had  blackened  their 
faces  and  hands;  both  wore  old  stove-pipe  hats  and 
queer  long- tailed  white  men's  coats.  One  w^ore  a 
huge  false  white  mustache,  and  the  other  carried  a 
coal-scuttle.  The  women  and  children  roared  with 
laughter  at  the  sight.  The  two  comedians  got  down 
from  their  horse,  and  began  to  make  grimaces,  and 
to  pose  this  way  and  that,  very  comically.  Such  a 
performance  had  never  been  seen  on  the  reserve  be- 
fore. No  one  there  could  explain  where  the  men  had 
seen  negro  minstrels.  The  other  unexpected  feature 
required  time  for  development.  At  first  we  noticed 
that  two  little  Indian  boys  kept  getting  in  the  way  of 
the  riders.  As  we  were  not  able  to  find  any  fixed 
place  of  safety  from  the  excited  horsemen,  we  mar- 
velled that  these  children  were  permitted  to  risk  their 
necks. 

Suddenly  a  hideously -painted  naked  man  on 
horseback  chased  the  little  boys,  leaving  the  caval- 
cade, and  circling  around  the  children.  He  rode 
back  into  the  ranks,  and  still  they  loitered  in  the 
way.  Then  around  swept  the  horsemen  once  more, 
and  this  time  the  naked  rider  flung  himself  from  his 
horse,  and  seizing  one  boy  and  then  the  other,  bore 
each  to  the  ground,  and  made  as  if  he  would  brain 
them  with  his  hatchet  and  lift  their  scalps  with  his 
knife.  The  sight  was  one  to  paralyze  an  on-looker. 
But  It  was  only  a  theatrical  performance  arranged  for 
the  occasion.  The  man  was  acting  over  again  the 
proudest  of  his  achievements.     The  boys  played  the 


■f■K.k•,^  ' 


THROWING  THE  SNOW   SNAKE 


parts  of  two  white  men  whose  scalps  now  grace  his 
tepee  and  gladden  his  memory. 

For  ninety  minutes  we  watched  the  glorious  rid- 
ing, the  splendid  horses,  the  brilliant  trappings, 
and  the  paroxysmal  fervor  of  the  excited  Indians. 
The  earth  trembled  beneath  the  dashing  of  the 
riders ;  the  air  palpitated  with  the  noise  of  their 
war-cries  and  bells.  We  could  have  stood  the  day 
out,  but  we  knew  the   players   were  tired,  and   yet 


52  ON    CANADA  S   FRONTIER 

would  not  cease  till   we   withdrew.      Therefore  we 
came  away. 

We  had  enjoyed  a  never-to-be-forgotten  privilege. 
It  was  as  if  we  had  seen  the  ghosts  of  a  dead  people 
ride  back  to  parody  scenes  in  an  era  that  had  van- 
ished. It  was  like  the  rising  of  the  curtain,  in  re- 
sponse to  an  "  encore,"  upon  a  drama  that  has  been 
played.  It  was  as  if  the  sudden  up- flashing  of  a 
smouldering  fire  lighted,  once  again  and  for  an  in- 
stant, the  scene  it  had  ceased  to  illumine. 


I 


Ill 

A    FAMOUS    MISSIONARY 

THE  former  chief  of  the  Blackfeet — Crowfoot — 
and  Father  Lacombe,  the  Roman  CathoHc 
missionary  to  the  tribe,  were  the  most  interesting 
and  among  the  most  influential  public  characters  in 
the  newer  part  of  Canada.  They  had  much  to  do 
with  controlling  the  peace  of  a  territory  the  size  of  a 
great  empire. 

The  chief  was  more  than  eighty  years  old ;  the 
priest  is  a  dozen  years  younger ;  and  yet  they  repre- 
sented in  their  experiences  the  two  great  epochs  of 
life  on  this  continent — the  barbaric  and  the  progress- 
ive. In  the  chief's  boyhood  the  red  man  held  undis- 
puted sway  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Rockies.  In  the 
priest's  youth  he  led,  like  a  scout,  beyond  the  advanc- 
ing hosts  from  Europe.  But  Father  Lacombe  came 
bearing  the  olive  branch  of  religion,  and  he  and  the 
barbarian  became  fast  friends,  intimates  in  a  compan- 
ionship as  picturesque  and  out  of  the  common  as  any 
the  world  could  produce. 

There  is  something  very  strange  about  the  rela- 
tions of  the  French  and  the  French  half-breeds  with 
the  wild  men  of  the  plains.  It  is  not  altogether  nec- 
essary that  the  Frenchman  should  be  a  priest,  for  I 
have  heard  of  French  half-breeds  in  our  Territories 
who  showed  again  and  again  that  they  could  make 


54  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

their  way  through  bands  of  hostiles  in  perfect  safety, 
though  knowing  nothing  of  the  language  of  the  tribes 
there  in  war-paint.  It  is  most  likely  that  their  swarthy 
skins  and  black  hair,  and  their  knowledge  of  savage 
ways  aided  them.  But  when  not  even  a  French  half- 
breed  has  dared  to  risk  his  life  among  angry  Indians, 
the  French  missionaries  went  about  their  duty  fear- 
lessly and  unscathed.  There  was  one,  just  after  the 
dreadful  massacre  of  the  Little  Big  Horn,  who  built 
a  cross  of  rough  wood,  painted  it  white,  fastened  it  to 
his  buck-board,  and  drove  through  a  country  in  which 
a  white  man  with  a  pale  face  and  blond  hair  would 
not  have  lived  two  hours. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  in  a  vast  region  of 
country  the  French  priest  and  voyageur  and  coureur 
dcs  bois  were  the  first  white  men  the  Indians  saw,  and 
while  the  explorers  and  traders  seldom  quarrelled 
with  the  red  men  or  offered  violence  to  them,  the 
priests  never  did.  They  went  about  like  women  or 
children,  or,  rather,  like  nothing  else  than  priests. 
They  quickly  learned  the  tongues  of  the  savages, 
treated  them  fairly,  showed  the  sublimest  courage, 
and  acted  as  counsellors,  physicians,  and  friends. 
There  is  at  least  one  brave  Indian  fighter  in  our 
army  who  will  state  it  as  his  belief  that  if  all  the 
white  men  had  done  thus  we  would  have  had  but  lit- 
tle trouble  with  our  Indians. 

Father  Lacombe  was  one  of  the  priests  who  thread- 
ed the  trails  of  the  North-western  timber  land  and  the 
Far  Western  prairie  when  white  men  were  very  few 
indeed  in  that  country,  and  the  only  settlements  were 
those  that  had  grown  around  the  frontier  forts  and 


A    FAMOUS    MISSIONARY  55 

the  still  earlier  mission  chapels.  For  instance,  in 
1849,  at  twenty-two  years  of  age,  he  slept  a  night  or 
two  where  St.  Paul  now  weights  the  earth.  It  was 
then  a  village  of  twenty-five  log-huts,  and  where  the 
great  building  of  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  now 
stands,  then  stood  the  village  chapel.  For  two  years 
he  worked  at  his  calling  on  either  side  of  the  Ameri- 
can frontier,  and  then  was  sent  to  what  is  now  Ed- 
monton, in  that  magical  region  of  long  summers  and 
great  agricultural  capacity  known  as  the  Peace  River 
District,  hundreds  of  miles  north  of  Dakota  and 
Idaho.  There  the  Rockies  are  broken  and  lowered, 
and  the  warm  Pacific  winds  have  rendered  the  region 
warmer  than  the  land  far  to  the  south  of  it.  But 
Father  Lacombe  went  farther — 400  miles  north  to 
Lake  Labiche.  There  he  found  what  he  calls  a  fine 
colony  of  half-breeds.  These  were  dependants  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company — white  men  from  England, 
France,  and  the  Orkney  Islands,  and  Indians  and 
half-breeds  and  their  children.  The  visits  of  priests 
were  so  infrequent  that  in  the  intervals  between  them 
the  white  men  and  Indian  women  married  one  an- 
other, not  without  formality  and  the  sanction  of  the 
colony,  but  without  waiting  for  the  ceremony  of  the 
Church.  Father  Lacombe  was  called  upon  to  bless 
and  solemnize  many  such  matches,  to  baptize  many 
children,  and  to  teach  and  preach  what  scores  knew 
but  vaguely  or  not  at  all. 

In  time  he  was  sent  to  Calgary,  in  the  province  of 
Alberta.  It  is  one  of  the  most  bustling  towns  in  the 
Dominion,  and  the  biggest  place  west  of  Winnipeg. 
Alberta  is  north  of  our  Montana,  and  is  all  prairie- 


56  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

land;  but  from  Father  Lacombe's  parsonage  one  sees 
the  snow-capped  Rockies,  sixty  miles  away,  lying 
above  the  horizon  like  a  line  of  clouds  tinged  with 
the  delicate  hues  of  mother-of-pearl  in  the  sunshine. 
Calgary  was  a  mere  post  in  the  wilderness  for  years 
after  the  priest  went  there.  The  buffaloes  roamed 
the  prairie  in  fabulous  numbers,  the  Indians  used  the 
bow  and  arrow  in  the  chase,  and  the  maps  we  studied 
at  the  time  showed  the  whole  region  enclosed  in  a 
loop,  and  marked  "  Blackfoot  Indians."  But  the  other 
Indians  were  loath  to  accept  this  disposition  of  the 
territory  as  final,  and  the  country  thereabouts  was  an 
almost  constant  battle-ground  between  the  Blackfoot 
nation  of  allied  tribes  and  the  Sioux,  Crows,  Flat- 
heads,  Crees,  and  others. 

The  good  priest — for  if  ever  there  was  a  good  man 
Father  Lacombe  is  one — saw  fighting  enough,  as  he 
roamed  with  one  tribe  and  the  other,  or  journeyed 
from  tribe  to  tribe.  His  mission  led  him  to  ignore 
tribal  differences,  and  to  preach  to  all  the  Indians  of 
the  plains.  He  knew  the  chiefs  and  headmen  among 
them  all,  and  so  justly  did  he  deal  with  them  that  he 
was  not  only  able  to  minister  to  all  without  attract- 
ing the  enmity  of  any,  but  he  came  to  wield,  as  he 
does  to-day,  a  formidable  power  over  all  of  them. 

He  knew  old  Crowfoot  in  his  prime,  and  as  I  saw 
them  together  they  were  like  bosom  friends.  To- 
gether they  had  shared  dreadful  privation  and  sur- 
vived frightful  winters  and  storms.  They  had  gone 
side  by  side  through  savage  battles,  and  each  respect- 
ed and  loved  the  other.  I  think  I  make  no  mistake 
in  saying  that  all  through  his  reign  Crowfoot  was  the 


A    FAMOUS    MISSIONARY  57 

greatest  Indian  monarch  in  Canada ;  possibly  no 
tribe  in  this  country  was  stronger  in  numbers  during 
the  last  decade  or  two.  I  have  never  seen  a  nobler- 
looking  Indian  or  a  more  king-like  man.  He  was  tall 
and  straight,  as  slim  as  a  girl,  and  he  had  the  face  of 
an  eagle  or  of  an  ancient  Roman.  He  never  troubled 
himself  to  learn  the  English  language ;  he  had  little 
use  for  his  own.  His  grunt  or  his  "  No "  ran  all 
through  his  tribe.  He  never  shared  his  honors  with 
a  squaw.  He  died  an  old  bachelor,  saying,  wittily, 
that  no  woman  would  take  him. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  degradation  of 
the  Canadian  Indian  began  a  dozen  or  fifteen  years 
later  than  that  of  our  own  red  men.  In  both  coun- 
tries the  railroads  were  indirectly  the  destructive 
agents,  and  Canada's  great  transcontinental  line  is  a 
new  institution.  Until  it  belted  the  prairie  the  other 
day  the  Blackfoot  Indians  led  very  much  the  life  of 
their  fathers,  hunting  and  trading  for  the  whites,  to 
be  sure,  but  living  like  Indians,  fighting  like  Indians, 
and  dying  like  them.  Now  they  don't  fight,  and  they 
live  and  die  like  dogs.  Amid  the  old  conditions 
lived  Crowfoot  —  a  haughty,  picturesque,  grand  old 
savao^e.  He  never  rode  or  walked  without  his  head- 
men  in  his  retinue,  and  when  he  wished  to  exert  his 
authority,  his  apparel  was  royal  indeed.  His  coat 
of  gaudy  bead -work  was  a  splendid  garment,  and 
weighed  a  dozen  pounds.  His  leg-gear  was  just  as 
fine;  his  moccasins  would  fetch  fifty  dollars  in  any 
city  to-day.  Doubtless  he  thought  his  hat  was  quite 
as  impressive  and  king-like,  but  to  a  mere  scion  of 
effeminate  civilization  it  looked  remarkably  like  an 


58  ON  Canada's  frontier 

extra  tall  plug  hat,  with  no  crown  in  the  top  and  a 
lot  of  crows'  plumes  in  the  band.  You  may  be  sure 
his  successor  wears  that  same  hat  to-day,  for  the  Ind- 
ians revere  the  "  state  hat "  of  a  brave  chief,  and  look 
at  it  through  superstitious  eyes,  so  that  those  queer 
hats  (older  tiles  than  ever  see  the  light  of  St.  Patrick's 
Day)  descend  from  chief  to  chief,  and  are  hallowed. 

But  Crowfoot  died  none  too  soon.  The  history  of 
the  conquest  of  the  wilderness  contains  no  more  pa- 
thetic story  than  that  of  how  the  kind  old  priest, 
Father  Lacombe,  warned  the  chief  and  his  lieuten- 
ants against  the  coming  of  the  pale-faces.  He  went 
to  the  reservation  and  assembled  the  leaders  before 
him  in  council.  He  told  them  that  the  white  men 
w^ere  building  a  great  railroad,  and  in  a  month  their 
w^orkmen  would  be  in  that  virgin  country.  He  told 
the  wondering  red  men  that  among  these  laborers 
would  be  found  many  bad  men  seeking  to  sell  whis- 
key, offering  money  for  the  ruin  of  the  squaws. 
Reaching  the  greatest  eloquence  possible  for  him, 
because  he  loved  the  Indians  and  doubted  their 
strength,  he  assured  them  that  contact  with  these 
white  men  would  result  in  death,  in  the  destruction 
of  the  Indians,  and  by  the  most  horrible  processes  of 
disease  and  misery.  He  thundered  and  he  pleaded. 
The  Indians  smoked  and  reflected.  Then  they 
spoke  through  old  Crowfoot: 

"  We  have  listened.  We  will  keep  upon  our  res- 
ervation.    We  will  not  go  to  see  the  railroad." 

But  Father  Lacombe  doubted  still,  and  yet  more 
profoundly  was  he  convinced  of  the  ruin  of  the  tribe 
should  the  "children,"  as  he  sagely  calls  all  Indians, 


A    FAMOUS    MISSIONARY  59 

disobey  him.  So  once  again  he  went  to  the  reserve, 
and  gathered  the  chief  and  the  headmen,  and  warned 
them  of  the  soulless,  diabolical,  selfish  instincts  of 
the  white  men.  Again  the  grave  warriors  promised 
to  obey  him. 

The  railroad  laborers  came  with  camps  and  money 
and  liquors  and  numbers,  and  the  prairie  thundered 
the  echoes  of  their  sledge-hammer  strokes.  And  one 
morning  the  old  priest  looked  out  of  the  window  of 
his  bare  bedroom  and  saw  curling  wisps  of  gray 
smoke  ascending  from  a  score  of  tepees  on  the  hill 
beside  Calgary.*  Angry,  amazed,  he  went  to  his 
doorway  and  opened  it,  and  there  upon  the  ground 
sat  some  of  the  headmen  and  the  old  men,  with  bow- 
ed heads,  ashamed.  Fancy  the  priest's  wrath  and  his 
questions !  Note  how  wisely  he  chose  the  name  of 
children  for  them,  when  I  tell  you  that  their  spokes- 
man at  last  answered  with  the  excuse  that  the  buffa- 
loes were  gone,  and  food  was  hard  to  get,  and  the 
white  men  brought  money  which  the  squaws  could 
get.  And  what  is  the  end  ?  There  are  always  te- 
pees on  the  hills  now  beside  every  settlement  near 
the  Blackfoot  reservation.  And  one  old  missionary 
lifted  his  trembling  forefinger  towards  the  sky,  when 
I  was  there,  and  said :  "  Mark  me.  In  fifteen  years 
there  will  not  be  a  full-blooded  Indian  alive  on  the 
Canadian  prairie — not  one." 

Through  all  that  revolutionary  railroad  building 
and  the  rush  of  new  settlers,  Father  Lacombe  and 

*  Since  this  was  written  Father  Lacombe's  work  has  been  con- 
tinued at  Fort  McLeod  in  the  same  province  as  Calgary.  In  this 
smaller  place  he  finds  more  time  for  his  literary  pursuits. 


6o  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

Crowfoot  kept  the  Indians  from  war,  and  even  from 
depredations  and  from  murder.  When  the  half- 
breeds  arose  under  Riel,  and  every  Indian  looked  to 
his  rifle  and  his  knife,  and  when  the  mutterings  that 
preface  the  war-cry  sounded  in  every  lodge.  Father 
Lacombe  made  Crowfoot  pledge  his  word  that  the 
Indians  should  not  rise.  The  priest  represented  the 
Government  on  these  occasions.  The  Canadian 
statesmen  recognize  the  value  of  his  services.  He 
is  the  great  authority  on  Indian  matters  be3'ond  our 
border;  the  ambassador  to  and  spokesman  for  the 
Indians. 

But  Father  Lacombe  is  more  than  that.  He  is 
the  deepest  student  of  the  Indian  languages  that 
Canada  possesses.  The  revised  edition  of  Bishop 
Barager's  Grammar  of  the  OcJiipwe  Language  bears 
these  words  upon  its  title-page:  "  Revised  by  the  Rev. 
Father  Lacombe,  Oblate  Mary  Immaculate,  1878." 
He  is  the  author  of  the  authoritative  Dictionnaire  et 
Grammaire  de  la  Lang7ie  Crise,  the  dictionary  of  the 
Cree  dialect  published  in  1874.  He  has  compiled 
just  such  another  monument  to  the  Blackfoot  lan- 
guage, and  will  soon  publish  it,  if  he  has  not  done  so 
already.  He  is  in  constant  correspondence  with  our 
Smithsonian  Institution ;  he  is  famous  to  all  who 
studv  the  Indian  ;  he  is  beloved  or  admired  throusfh- 
out  Canada. 

His  work  in  these  lines  is  labor  of  love.  He  is  a 
student  by  nature.  He  began  the  study  of  the  Algon- 
quin language  as  a  youth  in  older  Canada,  and  the 
tongues  of  many  of  these  tribes  from  Labrador  to 
Athabasca   are  but  dialects  of  the  lansuaore  of  the 


A    FAMOUS    MISSIONARY  63 

great  Algonquin  nation — the  Algic  family.  He  told 
me  that  the  white  man's  handling  of  Indian  words  in 
the  nomenclature  of  our  cities,  provinces,  and  States 
is  as  brutal  as  anything  charged  against  the  savages. 
Saskatchewan,  for  instance,  means  nothing.  "  Kis- 
siskatchewan "  is  the  word  that  was  intended.  It 
means  "  rapid  current."  Manitoba  is  senseless,  but 
"Manitowapa"  (the  mysterious  strait)  would  have 
been  full  of  local  import.  However,  there  is  no  need 
to  sadden  ourselves  with  this  expert  knowledge. 
Rather  let  us  be  grateful  for  every  Indian  name  with 
which  we  have  stamped  individuality  upon  the  map 
of  the  world,  be  it  rightly  or  wrongly  set  forth. 

It  is  strange  to  think  of  a  scholar  and  a  priest 
amid  the  scenes  that  Father  Lacombe  has  witnessed. 
It  was  one  of  the  most  fortunate  happenings  of  my 
life  that  I  chanced  to  be  in  Calgary  and  in  the  little 
mission  beside  the  chapel  when  Chief  Crowfoot  came 
to  pay  his  respects  to  his  old  black-habited  friend. 
Anxious  to  pay  the  chief  such  a  compliment  as  should 
present  the  old  warrior  to  me  in  the  light  in  which  he 
would  be  most  proud  to  be  viewed,  Father  Lacombe 
remarked  that  he  had  known  Crowfoot  when  he  was 
a  young  man  and  a  mighty  warrior.  The  old  cop- 
per-plated Roman  smiled  and  swelled  his  chest  when 
this  was  translated.  He  was  so  pleased  that  the 
priest  was  led  to  ask  him  if  he  remembered  one  night 
when  a  certain  trouble  about  some  horses,  or  a  chance 
duel  between  the  Blackfoot  tribe  and  a  band  of  its 
enemies,  led  to  a  midnight  attack.  If  my  memory 
serves  me,  it  was  the  Bloods  (an  allied  part  of  the 
Blackfoot  nation)  who  picked  this  quarrel.   The  chief 


64  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

grinned  and  grunted  wonderfully  as  the  priest  spoke» 
The  priest  asked  if  he  remembered  how  the  Bloods 
were  routed.  The  chief  grunted  even  more  emphat- 
ically. Then  the  priest  asked  if  the  chief  recalled 
what  a  pickle  he,  the  priest,  was  in  when  he  found 
himself  in  the  thick  of  the  fight.  At  that  old  Crow- 
foot actually  laughed. 

After  that  Father  Lacombe,  in  a  few  bold  sen- 
tences, drew  a  picture  of  the  quiet,  sleep- enfolded 
camp  of  the  Blackfoot  band,  of  the  silence  and  the 
darkness.  Then  he  told  of  a  sudden  musket-shot; 
then  of  the  screaming  of  the  squaws,  and  the  bark- 
ing of  the  dogs,  and  the  yelling  of  the  children,  of 
the  o-eneral  hubbub  and  confusion  of  the  startled 
camp.  The  cry  was  everywhere  "  The  Bloods !  the 
Bloods !"  The  enemy  shot  a  fusillade  at  close  quar- 
ters into  the  Blackfoot  camp,  and  the  priest  ran  out 
towards  the  blazing  muskets,  crying  that  they  must 
stop,  for  he,  their  priest,  was  in  the  camp.  He  shout- 
ed his  own  name,  for  he  stood  towards  the  Bloods 
precisely  as  he  did  towards  the  Blackfoot  nation. 
But  whether  the  Bloods  heard  him  or  not,  they  did 
not  heed  him.  The  blaze  of  their  guns  grew  strong- 
er and  crept  nearer.  The  bullets  whistled  by.  It 
grew  exceedingly  unpleasant  to  be  there.  It  was 
dangerous  as  well.  Father  Lacombe  said  that  he  did 
all  he  could  to  stop  the  fight,  but  when  it  was  evi- 
dent that  his  behavior  would  simply  result  in  the  mas- 
sacre of  his  hosts  and  of  himself  in  the  bargain,  he 
altered  his  cries  into  military  commands.  "  Give  it 
to  'em  !"  he  screamed.  He  urged  Crowfoot's  braves 
to  return  two  shots  for  every  one  from  the  enemy. 


A    FAMOUS    MISSIONARY  65 

He  took  command,  and  inspired  the  bucks  with 
double  valor.  They  drove  the  Bloods  out  of  reach 
and  hearing. 

All  this  was  translated  to  Crowfoot — or  Saponaxi- 
taw,  for  that  was  his  Indian  name — and  he  chuckled 
and  grinned,  and  poked  the  priest  in  the  side  with 
his  knuckles.  And  good  Father  Lacombe  felt  the 
magnetism  of  his  own  words  and  memory,  and  clapped 
the  chief  on  the  shoulder,  while  both  laughed  heartily 
at  the  climax,  with  the  accompanying  mental  picture 
of  the  discomfited  Bloods  running  away,  and  the  cler- 
gyman ordering  their  instant  destruction. 

There  may  not  be  such  another  meeting  and  re- 
hearsal on  this  continent  again.  Those  two  men 
represented  the  passing  and  the  dominant  races  of 
America ;  and  yet,  in  my  view,  the  learned  and  brave 
and  kindly  missionary  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  dead 
past  as  is  the  royalty  that  Crowfoot  was  the  last  to 
represent. 


IV 


ANTOINE  S    MOOSE-YARD 

IT  was  the  night  of  a  great  din- 
ner at  the  club.  Whenever 
the  door  of  the  banqueting  hall 
was  opened,  a  burst  of  laughter  or 
of  applause  disturbed  the  quiet  talk 
of  a  few  men  who  had  gathered  in 
the  reading-room — men  of  the  sort 
that  extract  the  best  enjoyment 
from  a  club  by  escaping  its  func- 
tions, or  attending  them  only  to  draw  to  one  side 
its  choicest  spirits  for  never-to-be-forgotten  talks  be- 
fore an  open  fire,  and  over  wine  and  cigars  used 
sparingly. 

"  I'm  tired,"  an  artist  was  saying — "so  tired  that  I 
have  a  horror  of  my  studio.  My  wife  understands 
my  condition,  and  bids  me  go  away  and  rest." 

"  That  is  astonishing,"  said  I ;  "  for,  as  a  rule, 
neither  women  nor  men  can  comprehend  the  fatigue 
that  seizes  an  artist  or  writer.  At  most  of  our 
homes  there  comes  to  be  a  reluctant  recognition  of 
the  fact  that  we  say  we  are  tired,  and  that  we  persist 
in  the  assumption  by  knocking  off  work.  But  hu- 
man fatigue  is  measured  by  the  mile  of  walking, 
or  the  cords  of  firewood  that  have  been  cut,  and 
the  world  will  always  hold  that  if  we  have  not  hewn 


ANTOINE  S    MOOSE-YARD  ^J 

wood  or  tramped  all  day,  it  is  absurd  for  us  to  talk 
of  feeling  tired.  We  cannot  alter  this ;  we  are  too 
few." 

"  Yes,"  said  another  of  the  little  party.  "  The 
world  shares  the  feeling  of  the  Irishman  who  saw  a 
very  large,  stout  man  at  work  at  reporting  in  a  court- 
room. 'Faith!' said  he, 'will  ye  look  at  the  size  of 
that  man — to  be  aiming  his  living  wid  a  little  pincil?' 
The  world  would  acknowledge  our  right  to  feel  tired 
if  we  used  crow-bars  to  write  or  draw  with ;  but  pen- 
cils !  pshaw !  a  hundred  weigh  less  than  a  pound." 

"  Well,"  said  I,  "  all  the  same,  I  am  so  tired  that  my 
head  feels  like  cork ;  so  tired  that  for  two  days  I 
have  not  been  able  to  summon  an  idea  or  turn  a  sen- 
tence neatly.  I  have  been  sitting  at  my  desk  writ- 
ing wretched  stuff  and  tearing  it  up,  or  staring 
blankly  out  of  the  window." 

"  Glorious !"  said  the  artist,  startling  us  all  with 
his  vehemence  and  inapt  exclamation.  "  Why,  it  is 
providential  that  I  came  here  to-night.  If  that's  the 
way  you  feel,  we  are  a  pair,  and  you  will  go  with  me 
and  rest.     Do  you  hunt.^*     Are  you  fond  of  it.?" 

"  I  know  all  about  it,"  said  I,  "but  I  have  not  defi- 
nitely determined  whether  I  am  fond  of  it  or  not. 
I  have  been  hunting  only  once.  It  was  years  ago, 
when  I  was  a  mere  boy.  I  went  after  deer  with  a 
poet,  an  editor,  and  a  railroad  conductor.  We  jour- 
neyed to  a  lovely  valley  in  Mifflin  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  put  ourselves  in  the  hands  of  a  man  seven 
feet  high,  who  had  a  flintlock  musket  a  foot  taller 
than  himself,  and  a  wife  who  gave  us  saleratus  bread 
and  a  bowl  of  pork  fat  for  supper  and  breakfast.    We 


eS  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

were  not  there  at  dinner.  The  man  stationed  us  a 
mile  apart  on  what  he  said  were  the  paths,  or  "  run- 
ways," the  deer  w^ould  take.  Then  he  went  to  stir 
the  game  up  with  his  dogs.  There  he  left  us  from 
sunrise  till  supper,  or  would  have  left  us  had  we  not 
with  great  diiftculty  found  one  another,  and  enjoyed 
the  exquisite  woodland  quiet  and  light  and  shade 
together,  mainly  flat  on  our  backs,  with  the  white 
sails  of  the  sky  floating  in  an  azure  sea  above  the 
reaching  fingers  of  the  tree-tops.  The  editor  marred 
the  occasion  with  an  unworthy  suspicion  that  our 
hunter  was  at  the  village  tavern  picturing  to  his 
cronies  what  simple  donkeys  we  were,  standing  a 
mile  apart  in  the  forsaken  woods.  But  the  poet  said 
something  so  pregnant  with  philosophy  that  it  always 
comes  back  to  me  with  the  mention  of  huntins^. 
'  Where  is  your  gun  ?'  he  was  asked,  when  we  came 
upon  him,  pacing  the  forest  path,  hands  in  pockets, 
and  no  weapon  in  sight.  '  Oh,  my  gun  ?'  he  repeated. 
'  I  don't  know.  Somewhere  in  among  those  trees. 
I  covered  it  with  leaves  so  as  not  to  see  it.  After 
this,  if  I  go  hunting  again,  I  shall  not  take  a  gun. 
It  is  very  cold  and  heavy,  and  more  or  less  danger- 
ous in  the  bargain.  You  never  use  it,  you  know. 
I  go  hunting  every  few  years,  but  I  never  yet  have 
had  to  fire  my  gun,  and  I  begin  to  see  that  it  is  only 
brought  along  in  deference  to  a  tradition  descending 
from  an  era  when  men  got  something  more  than 
fresh  air  and  scenery  on  a  hunting  trip.' " 

The  others  laughed  at  my  story,  but  the  artist 
regarded  me  with  an  expression  of  pity.  He  is  a 
famous  hunter — a  genuine,  devoted  hunter — and  one 


x-L 


THE   HOTEL — LAST   SIGN   OF   CIVILIZATION 

might  almost  as  safely  speak  a  light  word  of  his  rela- 
tions as  of  his  favorite  mode  of  recreation. 

"  Fresh  air!"  said  he  ;  "  scenery  !  Humph  !  Your 
poet  would  not  know  which  end  of  a  gun  to  aim 
with.  I  see  that  you  know  nothing  at  all  about 
hunting,  but  I  will  pay  you.  the  high  compliment  of 
saying  that  I  can  make  a  hunter  of  you.  I  have 
always  insisted  heretofore  that  a  hunter  must  begin 
in  boyhood ;  but  never  mind,  I'll  make  a  hunter  of 
you  at  thirty-six.  We  will  start  to-morrow  morning 
for  Montreal,  and  in  twenty-four  hours  you  shall  be 
in  the  greatest  sporting  region  in  America,  incom- 
parably the  greatest  hunting  district.  It  is  great 
because  Americans  do  not  know  of  it,  and  because 
it  has  all  of  British  America  to  keep  it  supplied  with 
game.  Think  of  it !  In  twenty-four  hours  we  shall 
be  tracking  moose  near  Hudson  Bay,  for  Hudson 
Bay  is  not  much  farther  from  New  York  than  Chi- 
cago— another  fact  that  few  persons  are  aware  of." 

Environment  is  a  positive  force.     We  could  feel 


•JO  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

that  we  were  disturbing  what  the  artist  would  call 
"  the  local  tone,"  by  rushing  through  the  city's  streets 
next  morning  with  our  guns  slung  upon  our  backs. 
It  was  just  at  the  hour  when  the  factory  hands  and 
the  shop-girls  were  out  in  force,  and  the  juxtaposi- 
tion of  those  elements  of  society  with  two  portly 
men  bearing  guns  created  a  positive  sensation.  In 
the  cars  the  artist  held  forth  upon  the  terrors  of  the 
life  upon  which  I  was  about  to  venture.  He  left 
upon  my  mind  a  blurred  impression  of  sleeping  out- 
of-doors,  like  human  cocoons,  done  up  in  blankets, 
while  the  savage  mercury  lurked  in  unknown  depths 
below  the  zero  mark.  He  said  the  camp-fire  would 
have  to  be  fed  every  two  hours  of  each  night,  and  he 
added,  without  contradiction  from  me,  that  he  sup- 
posed he  would  have  to  perform  this  duty,  as  he  was 
accustomed  to  it.  Lest  his  forecast  should  raise  my 
anticipation  of  pleasure  extravagantly,  he  added  that 
those  hunters  were  fortunate  who  had  fires  to  feed  • 
for  his  part  he  had  once  walked  around  a  tree  stump 
a  whole  night  to  keep  from  freezing.  He  supposed 
that  we  would  perform  our  main  journeying  on  snow- 
shoes,  but  how  we  should  enjoy  that  he  could  not 
say,  as  his  knowledge  of  snow-shoeing  was  limited. 

At  this  point  the  inevitable  offspring  of  fate,  who 
is  always  at  a  travellers  elbow  with  a  fund  of  alarm- 
ing information,  cleared  his  throat  as  he  sat  opposite 
us,  and  inquired  whether  he  had  overheard  that  we 
did  not  know  much  about  snow-shoes.  An  interest- 
ing fact  concerning  them,  he  said,  was  that  they 
seemed  easy  to  walk  with  at  first,  but  if  the  learner 
fell  down  with  them  on   it  usually  needed  a  consider- 


ANTOINES    MOOSE-YARD  7I 

able  portion  of  a  tribe  of  Indians  to  put  him  back  on 
his  feet.  Beginners  only  fell  down,  however,  in  at- 
tempting to  cross  a  log  or  stump,  but  the  forest 
where  we  were  going  was  literally  floored  with  such 
obstructions.  The  first  day's  effort  to  navigate  with 
snow-shoes,  he  remarked,  is  usually  accompanied  by 
a  terrible  malady  called  mal  de  raquette,  in  which  the 
cords  of  one's  legs  become  knotted  in  great  and  ex- 
cruciatingly painful  bunches.  The  cure  for  this  is  to 
"  walk  it  off  the  next  day,  when  the  agony  is  yet 
more  intense  than  at  first."  As  the  stranger  had 
reached  his  destination,  he  had  little  more  than  time 
to  remark  that  the  moose  is  an  exceedingly  vicious 
animal,  invariably  attacking  all  hunters  who  fail  to 
kill  him  with  the  first  shot.  As  the  stranger  stepped 
upon  the  car  platform  he  let  fall  a  simple  but  touch- 
ing eulogy  upon  a  dear  friend  who  had  recently  lost 
his  life  by  being  literally  cut  in  two,  lengthwise,  by  a 
moose  that  struck  him  on  the  chest  with  its  rigidly 
stiffened  fore -legs.  The  artist  protested  that  the 
stranger  was  a  sensationalist,  unsupported  by  either 
the  camp-fire  gossip  or  the  literature  of  hunters. 
Yet  one  man  that  night  found  his  slumber  tangled 
with  what  the  garrulous  alarmist  had  been  saying. 

In  Montreal  one  may  buy  clothing  not  to  be  had 
in  the  United  States :  woollens  thick  as  boards,  ho- 
siery that  wards  off  the  cold  as  armor  resists  missiles, 
gloves  as  heavy  as  shoes,  yet  soft  as  kid,  fur  caps  and 
coats  at  prices  and  in  a  variety  that  interest  poor  and 
rich  alike,  blanket  suits  that  are  more  picturesque 
than  any  other  masculine  garment  worn  north  of  the 
city  of  Mexico,  tuques,  and  moccasins,  and,  indeed,  so 


-2  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

many  sorts  of  clothing  we  Yankees  know  very  little 
of  (though  many  of  us  need  them)  that  at  a  glance 
we  say  the  Montrealers  are  foreigners.  Montreal  is 
the  t^ayest  city  on  this  continent,  and  I  have  often 
thought  that  the  clothing  there  is  largely  responsible 
for  that  condition. 

A  New  Yorker  disembarking  in  Montreal  in  mid- 
winter finds  the  place  inhospitably  cold,  and  wonders 
how,  as  well  as  why,  any  one  lives  there.  I  well  re- 
member standing  years  ago  beside  a  toboggan-slide, 
with  my  teeth  chattering  and  my  very  marrow  slowly 
congealing,  when  my  attention  was  called  to  the  fact 
that  a  dozen  ruddy-cheeked,  bright- eyed,  laughing 
girls  were  grouped  in  snow  that  reached  their  knees. 
I  asked  a  Canadian  lady  how  that  could  be  possible, 
and  she  answered  with  a  list  of  the  principal  gar- 
ments those  girls  were  wearing.  They  had  two  pairs 
of  stockings  under  their  shoes,  and  a  pair  of  stockings 
over  their  shoes,  with  moccasins  over  them.  They 
had  so  many  woollen  skirts  that  an  American  girl 
would  not  believe  me  if  I  gave  the  number.  They 
wore  heavy  dresses  and  buckskin  jackets,  and  blanket 
suits  over  all  this.  They  had  mittens  over  their 
gloves,  and  fur  caps  over  their  knitted  hoods.  It  no 
longer  seemed  wonderful  that  they  should  not  heed 
the  cold;  indeed,  it  occurred  to  me  that  their  bravery 
amid  the  terrors  of  tobogganing  was  no  bravery  at 
all,  since  a  girl  buried  deep  in  the  heart  of  such  a 
mass  of  woollens  could  scarcely  expect  damage  if  she 
fell  from  a  steeple.  When  next  I  appeared  out-of- 
doors  I  too  was  swathed  in  flannel,  like  a  jewel  in  a 
box  of  plush,  and  from  that  time  out  Montreal  seemed, 


"  GIVE    ME   A    LIGHT 


ANTOINES    MOOSE -YARD  75 

what  it  really  is,  the  merriest  of  American  capitals. 
And  there  I  had  come  again,  and  was  filling  my  trunk 
with  this  wonderful  armor  of  civilization,  while  the 
artist  sought  advice  as  to  which  point  to  enter  the 
wilderness  in  order  to  secure  the  biggest  game  most 
quickly. 

Mr.  W.  C.  Van  Home,  the  President  of  the  Cana- 
dian Pacific  Railroad,  proved  a  friend  in  need.  He 
dictated  a  few  telegrams  that  agitated  the  people  of  a 
vast  section  of  country  between  Ottawa  and  the  Great 
Lakes.  And  in  the  afternoon  the  answers  came  fly- 
ing back.  These  were  from  various  points  where 
Hudson  Bay  posts  are  situated.  At  one  or  two  the 
Indian  trappers  and  hunters  were  all  away  on  their 
winter  expeditions ;  from  another  a  famous  white 
hunter  had  just  departed  with  a  party  of  gentlemen. 
At  Mattawa,  in  Ontario,  moose  were  close  at  hand 
and  plentiful,  and  two  skilled  Indian  hunters  were 
just  in  from  a  trapping  expedition ;  but  the  post 
factor,  Mr.  Rankin,  was  sick  in  bed,  and  the  Indians 
were  on  a  spree.  To  Mattawa  we  decided  to  go.  It 
is  a  twelve-hour  journey  from  New  York  to  Montreal, 
and  an  eleven -hour  journey  from  Montreal  to  the 
heart  of  this  hunters'  paradise;  so  that,  had  we  known 
at  just  what  point  to  enter  the  forest,  we  could  have 
taken  the  trail  in  twenty-four  hours  from  the  metrop- 
olis, as  the  artist  had  predicted. 

Our  first  taste  of  the  frontier,  at  Peter  O'Farrall's 
Ottawa  Hotel,  in  Mattawa,  was  delicious  in  the  ex- 
treme. O'Farrall  used  to  be  game- keeper  to  the 
Marquis  of  Waterford,  and  thus  got  "a  taste  of  the 
quality"  that  prompted  him  to  assume  the  position  he 


^6  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

has  chosen  as  the  most  lordly  hotel-keeper  in  Canada. 
We  do  not  know  what  sort  of  men  own  our  great 
N.ew  York  and  Chicago  and  San  Francisco  hotels, 
but  certainly  they  cannot  lead  more  leisurely,  com- 
placent lives  than  Mr.  O'Farrall.  He  has  a  bar- 
tender to  look  after  the  male  visitors  and  the  bar, 
and  a  matronly  relative  to  see  to  the  women  and  the 
kitchen,  so  that  the  landlord  arises  when  he  likes  to 
enjoy  each  succeeding  day  of  ease  and  prosperity. 
He  has  been  known  to  exert  himself,  as  when  he 
chased  a  man  who  spoke  slightingly  of  his  liquor. 
And  he  was  momentarily  ruffled  at  the  trying  con- 
duct of  the  artist  on  this  hunting  trip.  The  artist 
could  not  find  his  overcoat,  and  had  the  temerity  to 
refer  the  matter  to  Mr.  O'Farrall. 

"  Sir,"  said  the  artist,  "  what  do  you  suppose  has 
become  of  my  overcoat  ?     I  cannot  find  it  anywhere." 

"  I  don't  know  anything  about  your  botheration 
overcoat,"  said  Mr.  O'Farrall.  "  Sure,  I've  throuble 
enough  kaping  thrack  of  me  own." 

The  reader  may  be  sure  that  O'Farrall's  was  rightly 
recommended  to  us,  and  that  it  is  a  well-managed  and 
popular  place,  with  good  beds  and  excellent  fare,  and 
with  no  extra  charge  for  the  delightful  addition  of  the 
host  himself,  who  is  very  tall  and  dignified  and  hu- 
morous, and  who  is  the  oddest  and  yet  most  pictu- 
resque-looking public  character  in  the  Dominion. 
Such  an  oddity  is  certain  to  attract  queer  characters 
to  his  side,  and  Mr.  O'Farrall  is  no  exception  to  the 
rule.  One  of  the  waiter-girls  in  the  dining-room  was 
found  never  by  any  chance  to  know  anything  that  she 
was  asked  about.     For  instance,  she  had  never  heard 


ANTOINE  S     MOOSE-YARD  7/ 

of  Mr.  Rankin,  the  chief  man  of  the  place.  To  every 
question  she  made  answer,  "  Sure,  there  does  be  a 
p-reat  dale  sfoin'  on  here  and  I  know  nothin'  of  it." 
Of  her  the  artist  ventured  the  theory  that  "  she  could 
not  know  everything  on  a  waiter-girl's  salary."  John, 
the  bar-tender,  was  a  delightful  study.  No  matter 
what  a  visitor  laid  down  in  the  smoking-room,  John 
picked  it  up  and  carried  it  behind  the  bar.  Every 
one  was  continually  losing  something  and  searching 
for  it,  always  to  observe  that  John  was  able  to  pro- 
duce it  with  a  smile  and  the  wise  remark  that  he  had 
taken  the  lost  article  and  put  it  away  "  for  fear  some 
one  would  pick  it  up."  Finally,  there  was  Mr.  O'Far- 
rall's  dog — a  ragged,  time-worn,  petulant  terrier,  no 
bigger  than  a  pint-pot.  Mr.  O'Farrall  nevertheless 
called  him  "  Fairy,"  and  said  he  kept  him  "to  protect 
the  village  children  against  wild  bears." 

I  shall  never  be  able  to  think  of  Mattawa  as  it  is — 
a  plain  little  lumbering  town  on  the  Ottawa  River, 
with  the  wreck  and  ruin  of  once  grand  scenery  hem- 
ming it  in  on  all  sides,  in  the  form  of  ragged  mount- 
ains literally  ravaged  by  fire  and  the  axe.  Hints  of 
it  come  back  to  me  in  dismembered  bits  that  prove 
it  to  have  been  interesting:  vignettes  of  little  school- 
boys in  blanket  suits  and  moccasins,  of  great-spirited 
horses  forever  racing  ahead  of  fur-laden  sleighs,  and 
of  troops  of  olive -skinned  French  -  Canadian  girls, 
bundled  up  from  their  feet  to  those  mischievous  feat- 
ures which  shot  roguish  glances  at  the  artist  —  the 
biggest  man,  the  people  said,  who  had  ever  been  seen 
in  Mattawa.  But  the  place  will  ever  yield  back  to 
my  mind  the  impression  I  got  of  the  wonderful  prep- 


78  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

arations  that  were  made  for  our  adventure — prepara- 
tions that  seemed  to  busy  or  to  interest  nearly  every 
one  in  the  villao:e.  Our  Indians  had  come  in  from 
the  Indian  village  three  miles  away,  and  had  said  they 
had  had  enough  drink.  Mr.  John  De  Sousa,  account- 
ant at  the  post,  took  charge  of  them  and  of  us,  and 
the  work  of  loading  a  great  portage  sleigh  went  on 
apace.  The  men  of  sporting  tastes  came  out  and 
lounged  in  front  of  the  post, and  gave  helpful  advice; 
the  Indians  and  clerks  went  to  and  from  the  sleigh 
laden  with  bags  of  necessaries ;  the  harness  -  maker 
made  for  us  belts  such  as  the  lumbermen  use  to  pre- 
clude the  possibility  of  incurable  strains  in  the  rough 
life  in  the  wilderness.  The  help  at  O'Farrall's  as- 
sisted in  repacking  what  we  needed,  so  that  our 
trunks  and  town  clothing  could  be  stored.  Mr.  De 
Sousa  sent  messengers  hither  and  thither  for  essen- 
tials not  in  stock  at  the  post.  Some  women,  even, 
were  set  at  work  to  make  "  neaps  "  for  us,  a  neap  be- 
ing a  sort  of  slipper  or  unlaced  shoe  made  of  heavy 
blanketing  and  worn  outside  one's  stockings,  to  give 
added  warmth  to  the  feet. 

"  You  see,  this  is  no  casual  rabbit-hunt,"  said  the 
artist.     The  remark  will  live  in  Mattawa  many  a  year. 

The  Hudson  Bay  Company's  posts  differ.  In  the 
wilderness  they  are  forts  surrounded  by  stockades, 
but  within  the  boundaries  of  civilization  they  are 
stores.  That  at  Winnipeg  is  a  splendid  emporium, 
while  that  at  Mattawa  is  like  a  villasre  store  in  the 
United  States,  except  that  the  top  story  is  laden  with 
guns,  traps,  snow-shoes,  and  the  skins  of  wild  beasts ; 
while  an  out-building  in  the  rear  is  the  repository  of 


ANTOINE  S    MOOSE-YARD  79 

scores  of  birch-bark  canoes — the  carriages  of  British 
America.  Mr.  Rankin,  the  factor  there,  lay  in  a  bed 
of  suffering  and  could  not  see  us.  Yet  it  seemed 
difficult  to  believe  that  we  could  be  made  the  recipi- 
ents of  greater  or  more  kindly  attentions  than  were 
lavished  upon  us  by  his  accountant,  Mr.  De  Sousa. 
He  ordered  our  tobacco 
ground  for  us  ready  for 
our  pipes ;  selected  the 
finest  from  among  those 
extraordinary  blankets 
that  have  been  made  ex- 
clusively for  this  com- 
pany for  hundreds  of  , 
years ;  picked  out  the  ^^^^^^ 
laro;est  snow-shoes  in 
his  stock ;  bade  us  lay 
aside  the  gloves  we  had  antoine,  from  life 

brought,  and  take  mit- 
tens such  as  he  produced,  and  for  which  we  thanked 
him  in  our  hearts  many  times  afterwards ;  planned 
our  outfit  of  food  with  the  wisdom  of  an  old  cam- 
paigner; bethought  himself  to  send  for  baker's 
bread;  ordered  high  legs  sewed  on  our  moccasins — 
in  a  word,  he  made  it  possible  for  us  to  say  after- 
wards that  absolutely  nothing  had  been  overlooked 
or  slighted  in  fitting  out  our  expedition. 

As  I  sat  in  the  sleigh,  tucked  in  under  heavy  skins 
and  leaning  at  royal  ease  against  other  furs  that  cov- 
ered a  bale  of  hay,  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  become 
part  of  one  of  such  pictures  as  we  all  have  seen,  por- 
traying historic  expeditions  in  Russia  or  Siberia.    We 


So  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

carried  fifteen  hundred  pounds  of  traps  and  provi- 
sions for  camping,  stabling,  and  food  for  men  and 
beasts.  We  were  five  in  all — two  hunters,  two  Ind- 
ians, and  a  teamster.  We  set  out  with  the  two  huge 
mettlesome  horses  ahead,  the  driver  on  a  high  seat 
formed  of  a  second  bale  of  hay,  ourselves  lolling  back 
under  our  furs,  and  the  two  Indians  striding  along 
over  the  resonant  cold  snow  behind  us.  It  was  be- 
einnino:  to  be  evident  that  a  s^reat  deal  of  effort  and 
machinery  was  needed  to  "  make  a  hunter  "  of  a  city 
man,  and  that  it  was  going  to  be  done  thoroughly — 
two  thoughts  of  a  highly  flattering  nature. 

We  were  now  clad  for  arctic  weather,  and  perhaps 
nothing  except  a  mummy  was  ever  "so  dressed  up" 
as  we  were.  We  each  wore  two  pairs  of  the  heaviest 
woollen  stockings  I  ever  saw,  and  over  them  ribbed 
bicycle  stockings  that  came  to  our  knees.  Over  these 
in  turn  were  our  "  neaps,"  and  then  our  moccasins, 
laced  tightly  around  our  ankles.  We  had  on  two 
suits  of  flannels  of  extra  thickness,  flannel  shirts, 
reefing  jackets,  and  "capeaux,"  as  they  call  their  long- 
hooded  blanket  coats,  longer  than  snow-shoe  coats. 
On  our  heads  we  had  knitted  tuques,  and  on  our 
hands  mittens  and  gloves.  We  were  bound  for  An- 
toine's  moose-yard,  near  Crooked  Lake. 

The  explanation  of  the  term  "moose-yard"  made 
moose-hunting  appear  a  simple  operation  (once  we 
were  started),  for  a  moose-yard  is  the  feeding-ground 
of  a  herd  of  moose,  and  our  head  Indian,  Alexandre 
Antoine,  knew  where  there  was  one.  Each  herd  or 
family  of  these  great  wild  cattle  has  two  such  feeding- 
grounds,  and  they  are  said  to  go  alternately  from  one 


ANTOINES    MOOSE-YARD  8l 

to  the  other,  never  herding  in  one  place  two  years  in 
succession.  In  this  region  of  Canada  they  weigh  be- 
tween 600  and  1200  pounds,  and  the  reader  will  help 
his  comprehension  of  those  figures  by  recalling  the 
fact  that  a  1200-pound  horse  is  a  very  large  one. 
Whether  they  desert  a  yard  for  twelve  months  be- 
cause of  the  damage  they  do  to  the  supply  of  food  it 
offers  to  them,  or  whether  it  is  instinctive  caution 
that  directs  their  movements,  no  one  can  more  than 
conjecture. 

Their  yards  are  always  where  soft  wood  is  plenti- 
ful and  water  is  near,  and  during  a  winter  they  will 
feed  over  a  region  from  half  a  mile  to  a  mile  square. 
The  prospect  of  going  directly  to  the  fixed  home  of 
a  herd  of  moose  almost  robbed  the  trip  of  that  specu- 
lative element  that  gives  the  greatest  zest  to  hunting. 
But  we  knew  not  what  the  future  held  for  us.  Not 
even  the  artist,  with  all  his  experience,  conjectured 
what  was  in  store  for  us.  And  what  was  to  come  be- 
gan coming  almost  immediately. 

The  journey  began  upon  a  good  highway,  over 
which  we  slid  along  as  comfortably  as  any  ladies  in 
their  carriages,  and  with  the  sleigh  -  bells  flinging 
their  cheery  music  out  over  a  desolate  valley,  with 
a  leaden  river  at  the  bottom,  and  with  small  mount- 
ains rolling  all  about.  The  timber  was  cut  off  them, 
except  here  and  there  a  few  red  or  white  pines  that 
reared  their  green,  brush -like  tops  against  the  gen- 
eral blanket  of  snow.  The  dull  sky  hung  sullenly 
above,  and  now  and  then  a  raven  flew  by,  croaking 
hoarse  disapproval  of  our  intrusion.  To  warn  us  of 
what  we  were  to  expect,  Antoine  had   made  a  shy 


82  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

Indian  joke,  one  of  the  few  I  ever  heard:  "  In  small 
little  while,"  said  he,  "we  come  to  all  sorts  ot  a  road. 
JNIe  call  it  that  'cause  you  get  every  sort  riding,  then 
you  sure  be  suited." 

At  five  miles  out  we  came  to  this  remarkable  high- 
way. It  can  no  more  be  adequately  described  here 
than  could  the  experiences  of  a  man  who  goes  over 
Niagara  Falls  in  a  barrel.  The  reader  must  try  to 
imagine  the  most  primitive  sort  of  a  highway  con- 
ceivable—  one  that  has  been  made  by  merely  felling 
trees  through  a  forest  in  a  path  wide  enough  for  a 
team  and  wagon.  All  the  tree  stumps  were  left  in 
their  places,  and  every  here  and  there  were  rocks ; 
some  no  larger  than  a  bale  of  cotton,  and  some  as 
small  as  a  bushel  basket.  To  add  to  the  other  allur- 
ing qualities  of  the  road,  there  were  tree  trunks  now 
and  then  directly  across  it,  and,  as  a  further  induce- 
ment to  trafilic,  the  highway  was  frequently  interrupt- 
ed by  "  pitch  holes."  Some  of  these  would  be  called 
pitch  holes  anywhere.  They  were  at  points  where 
a  rill  crossed  the  road,  or  the  road  crossed  the  corner 
of  a  marsh.  But  there  were  other  pitch  holes  that 
any  intelligent  New  Yorker  would  call  ravines  or 
gullies.  These  were  at  points  where  one  hill  ran 
down  to  the  water-level  and  another  immediately  rose 
precipitately,  there  being  a  watercourse  between  the 
two.  In  all  such  places  there  was  deep  black  mud 
and  broken  ice.  However,  these  were  mere  features 
of  the  character  of  this  road — a  character  too  pro- 
found for  me  to  hope  to  portray  it.  When  the  road 
was  not  inclined  either  straight  down  or  straight  up, 
it  coursed  along  the  slanting  side  of  a  steep  hill,  so 


ANTOINES    MOOSE-YARD 


83 


that  a  vehicle  could  keep  to  it  only  by  falling  against 
the  forest  at  the  under  side  and  carrominq;  alonsf 
from  tree  to  tree. 

Such  was  the  road.  The  manner  of  travelling  it 
was  quite  as  astounding.  For  nothing  short  of  what 
Alphonse,  the  teamster,  did  would  I  destroy  a  man's 
character;  but  Alphonse  was  the  next  thing  to  an 
idiot.  He  made 
that  dreadful 
journey  at  a  gal- 
lop!     The    first 


THE   PORTAGE    SLEIGH    ON   A 
LUMBER    ROAD 


time  he  upset 
the  sleigh  and 
threw  me  with 
one  leg  thigh-deep  be- 
tween a  stone  and  a 
tree  trunk,  besides 
sending  the  artist  fly- 
ing over  my  head  like  a  shot  from  a  sling,  he  reseat- 
ed himself  and  remarked:  "That  makes  tree  time  I 
upset  in  dat  place.  Hi,  there!  Get  up!"  It  never 
occurred  to  him  to  stop  because  a  giant  tree  had 
fallen  across  the  trail.  "Look  out!  Hold  tight!"  he 
would  call  out,  and  then  he  would  take  the  obstruc- 


84  ON  Canada's  frontier 

tion  at  a  jump.  The  horses  were  mammoth  beasts, 
in  the  best  fettle,  and  the  sleigh  was  of  the  solidest, 
strongest  pattern.  There  were  places  where  even 
Alphonsc  was  anxious  to  drive  with  caution.  Such 
were  the  ravines  and  unbridged  waterways.  But  one 
of  the  horses  had  cut  himself  badly  in  such  a  place  a 
year  before,  and  both  now  made  it  a  rule  to  take  all 
such  places  flying.  Fancy  the  result!  The  leap  in 
air,  and  then  the  crash  of  the  sled  as  it  landed,  the 
snap  of  the  harness  chains,  the  snorts  of  the  winded 
beasts,  the  yells  of  the  driver,  the  anxiety  and  nerv- 
ousness of  the  passengers ! 

At  one  point  we  had  an  exciting  adventure  of  a 
far  different  sort.  There  was  a  moderately  good 
stretch  of  road  ahead,  and  we  invited  the  Indians  to 
jump  in  and  ride  a  while.  We  noticed  that  they  took 
occasional  draughts  from  a  bottle.  They  finished  a 
full  pint,  and  presently  Alexandre  produced  another 
and  larger  phial.  Every  one  knows  what  a  drunken 
Indian  is,  and  so  did  we.  We  ordered  the  sleieh 
stopped  and  all  hands  out  for  "a  talk."  Firmly,  but 
with  both  power  and  reason  on  our  side;  we  demand- 
ed a  promise  that  not  another  drink  should  be  taken, 
or  that  the  horses  be  turned  towards  Mattawa  at 
once.     The  promise  was  freely  given. 

"  But  what  is  that  stuff }  Let  me  see  it,"  one  of 
the  hunters  asked. 

"  It  is  de  'igh  wine,"  said  Alexandre. 

"High  wine.?  Alcohol.?"  exclaimed  the  hunter, 
and,  impulse  being  quicker  than  reason  sometimes, 
flung  the  bottle  high  in  air  into  the  bush.  It  was  an 
injudicious  action,  but  both  of  us  at  once  prepared  to 


i 


ANTOINES    MOOSE-YARD  85 

defend  and  re-enforce  it,  of  course.  As  it  happened, 
the  Indians  saw  that  no  unkindness  or  unfairness 
was  intended,  and  neither  sulked  nor  made  trouble 
afterwards. 

We  were  now  deep  in  the  bush.  Occasionally  we 
passed  "a  brule,"  or  tract  denuded  of  trees,  and  lit- 
tered with  trunks  and  tops  of  trunks  rejected  by  the 
lumbermen.  But  every  mile  took  us  nearer  to  the 
undisturbed  primeval  forest,  where  the  trees  shoot 
up  forty  feet  before  the  branches  begin.  There  were 
no  houses,  teams,  or  men.  In  a  week  in  the  bush 
we  saw  no  other  sign  of  civilization  than  what  we 
brought  or  made.  All  around  us  rose  the  motion- 
less regiments  of  the  forest,  with  the  snow  beneath 
them,  and  their  branches  and  twigs  printing  lace- 
work  on  the  sky.  The  signs  of  game  were  numerous, 
and  varied  to  an  extent  that  I  never  heard  of  before. 
There  were  few  spaces  of  the  length  of  twenty- five 
feet  in  which  the  track  of  some  wild  beast  or  bird 
did  not  cross  the  road.  The  Indians  read  this  writ- 
ing in  the  snow,  so  that  the  forest  was  to  them  as  a 
book  would  be  to  us.  "  What  is  that  ?"  "And  that  ?" 
"And  that?"  I  kept  inquiring.  The  answers  told 
more  eloquently  than  any  man  can  describe  it  the 
story  of  the  abundance  of  game  in  that  easily  acces- 
sible wilderness.  "  Dat  red  deer,"  Antoine  replied. 
"  Him  fox."  "Dat  bear  track;  dat  squirrel ;  dat  rab- 
bit." "  Dat  moose  track ;  pass  las'  week."  "  Dat  pa'- 
tridge ;  dat  wolf."  Or  perhaps  it  was  the  trail  of  a 
marten,  or  a  beaver,  or  a  weasel,  or  a  fisher,  mink, 
lynx,  or  otter  that  he  pointed  out,  for  all  these  "signs" 
were  there,  and  nearly  all  were  repeated  again  and 

6* 


86  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

again.  Of  the  birds  that  are  plentiful  there  the 
principal  kinds  are  partridge,  woodcock,  crane,  geese, 
duck,  gull,  loon,  and  owl. 

When  the  sun  set  we  prepared  to  camp,  selecting  a 
spot  near  a  tiny  rill.  The  horses  were  tethered  to  a 
tree,  with  their  harness  still  on,  and  blankets  thrown 
over  them.  We  cleared  a  little  space  by  the  road- 
side, usins:  our  snow-shoes  for  shovels.  The  Indians, 
with  their  axes,  turned  up  the  moss  and  leaves,  and 
levelled  the  small  shoots  and  brushwood.  Then  one 
went  off  to  cut  balsam  boughs  for  bedding,  while  the 
other  set  up  two  crotched  sticks,  with  a  pole  upon 
them  resting  in  the  crotches,  and  throwing  the  can- 
vas of  an  "A"  tent  over  the  frame,  he  looped  the  bot- 
tom of  the  tent  to  small  pegs,  and  banked  snow 
lightly  all  around  it.  The  little  aromatic  branches 
of  balsam  were  laid  evenly  upon  the  ground,  a  fur 
robe  was  thrown  upon  the  leaves,  our  enormous 
blankets  were  spread  half  open  side  by  side,  and  two 
coats  were  rolled  up  and  throwm  down  for  pillows. 
Pierre,  the  second  Indian,  made  tiny  slivers  of  some 
soft  wood,  and  tried  to  start  a  fire.  He  failed.  Then 
Alexandre  Antoine  brought  two  handfuls  of  bark, 
and  lighting  a  small  piece  with  a  match,  proceeded 
to  build  a  fire  in  the  most  painstaking  manner,  and 
with  an  ingenuity  that  was  most  interesting.  First 
he  made  a  fire  that  could  have  been  started  in  a  tea- 
cup ;  then  he  built  above  and  around  it  a  skeleton 
tent  of  bits  of  soft  wood,  six  to  nine  inches  in  length. 
This  gave  him  a  fire  of  the  dimensions  of  a  high  hat. 
Next,  he  threw  down  two  great  bits  of  timber,  one 
on  either  side  of  the  fire,  and  a  still  larger  back  log, 


THE   TRACK    IN    THE   WINTER    FOREST 


AXTOIXE  S    MOOSE -YARD  89 

and  upon  these  he  heaped  split  soft  wood.  While 
this  was  being  done,  Pierre  assailed  one  great  tree 
after  another,  and  brought  them  crashing  down  with 
noises  that  startled  the  forest  quiet.  Alphonse  had 
opened  the  provision  bags,  and  presently  two  tin  pails 
filled  with  water  swung  from  saplings  over  the  fire, 
and  a  pan  of  fat  salt  pork  was  frizzling  upon  the  blaz. 
ing  wood.  The  darkness  grew  dead  black,  and  the 
dancing  flames  peopled  the  near  forest  with  dodging 
shadows.  Almost  in  the  time  it  has  taken  me  to 
write  it,  we  were  squatting  on  our  heels  around  the 
fire,  each  with  a  massive  cutting  of  bread,  a  slice  of 
fried  pork  in  a  tin  plate,  and  half  a  pint  of  tea,  pre- 
cisely as  hot  as  molten  lead,  in  a  tin  cup.  Supper 
was  a  necessity,  not  a  luxury,  and  was  hurried  out  of 
the  way  accordingly.  Then  the  men  built  their  camp 
beside  ours  in  front  of  the  fire,  and  followed  that  by 
felling  three  or  more  monarchs  of  the  bush.  Noth- 
ing surprised  me  so  much  as  the  amount  of  wood 
consumed  in  these  open-air  fires.  In  five  da3's  at 
our  permanent  camp  we  made  a  great  hole  in  the 
forest. 

But  that  first  night  in  the  open  air,  abed  with  nat- 
ure, with  British  America  for  a  bedroom  !  Only  I 
can  tell  of  it,  for  the  others  slept.  The  stillness  was 
intense.  There  was  no  wind,  and  not  an  animal  or 
bird  uttered  a  cry.  The  logs  cracked  and  sputtered 
and  popped,  the  horses  shook  their  chains,  the  men 
all  snored — white  and  red  alike.  The  horses  pounded 
the  hollow  earth ;  the  logs  broke  and  fell  upon  the 
cinders ;  one  of  the  men  talked  in  his  sleep.  But 
over  and  through  it  all  the  stillness  grew.     Then  the 


go  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

fire  sank  low,  the  cold  became  intense,  the  light  was 
lost,  and  the  darkness  swallowed  everything.  Some 
one  got  up  awkwardly,  with  muttering,  and  flung 
wood  upon  the  red  ashes,  and  presently  all  that  had 
passed  was  re-experienced. 

The  ride  next  day  was  more  exciting  than  the 
first  stage.  It  was  like  the  journey  of  a  gun-carriage 
across  country  in  a  hot  retreat.  The  sled  was  actu- 
ally upset  only  once,  but  to  prevent  that  happening 
fifty  times  the  Indians  kept  springing  at  the  upper- 
most side  of  the  flying  vehicle,  and  hanging  to  the 
side  poles  to  pull  the  toppling  construction  down 
upon  both  runners.  Often  we  were  advised  to  leap 
out  for  safety's  sake ;  at  other  times  we  wished  we 
had  leaped  out.  For  seven  hours  we  were  flung 
about  like  cotton  spools  that  are  being  polished  in 
a  revolving  cylinder.  And  yet  we  were  obliged  to 
run  long  distances  after  the  hurtling  sleigh  —  long 
enough  to  tire  us.  The  artist,  who  had  spent  years 
in  rude  scenes  among  rough  men,  said  nothing  at  the 
time.  What  was  the  use  ?  But  afterwards,  in  New 
York,  he  remarked  that  this  was  the  roughest  travel- 
ling he  had  ever  experienced. 

The  signs  of  game  increased.  Deer  and  bear  and 
wolf  and  fox  and  moose  were  evidently  numerous 
around  us.  Once  we  stopped,  and  the  Indians  be- 
came excited.  What  they  had  taken  for  old  moose 
tracks  were  the  week-old  footprints  of  a  man.  It 
seems  strange,  but  they  felt  obliged  to  know  what  a 
man  had  gone  into  the  bush  for  a  week  ago.  They 
followed  the  signs,  and  came  back  smiling.  He  had 
gone  in  to  cut  hemlock  boughs;  we  would  find  traces 


ANTOINE  S    MOOSE-YARD 


91 


of  a  camp  near  by.  We 
did.  In  a  country  where 
men  are  so  few,  they  busy 
themselves  about  one  an- 
other. Four  or  five  days 
later,  while  we  were  hunt- 
ing, these  Indians  came 
to  the  road  and  stopped 
suddenly,  as  horses  do 
when  lassoed.  With  a 
glance  they  read  that 
two  teams  had  passed 
during  the  night,  go- 
ing towards  our  camp. 
When  we  returned  to 
camp  the  teams  had 
been  there,  and  our 
teamster  had  talked  with 
the  drivers.      Therefore 

that  load  was  lifted  from  the  minds  of  our  Indians. 
But  their  knowledge  of  the  bush  was  marvellous. 
One  point  in  the  woods  was  precisely  like  another 
to  us,  yet  the  Indians  would  leap  off  the  sleigh  now 
and  then  and  dive  into  the  forest,  to  return  with  a 
trap  hidden  there  months  before,  or  to  find  a  great 
iron  kettle. 

"  Do  you  never  get  lost  ,^"  I  asked  Alexandre. 

"  Me  get  los'?     No,  no  get  los'." 

"  But  how  do  you  find  your  way .?" 

"  Me  fin'  way  easy.  Me  know  way  me  come,  or 
me  follow  my  tracks,  or  me  know  by  de  sun.  If  no 
sun,  me  look  at  trees.     Trees  grow  more   branches 


PIERRE,    FROM  LIFE 


92  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

on  side  toward  sun,  and  got  rough  bark  on  north 
side.     At  night  me  know  by  see  de  stars." 

We  camped  in  a  log-hut  Alexandre  had  built  for 
a  hunting  camp.  It  was  very  picturesque  and  sub- 
stantial, built  of  huge  logs,  and  caulked  with  moss. 
It  had  a  ereat  earthen  bank  in  the  middle  for  a  fire- 
place,  with  an  equally  large  opening  in  the  roof, 
boarded  several  feet  high  at  the  sides  to  form  a 
chimney.  At  one  corner  of  the  fire  bank  was  an  in- 
genious crane,  capable  of  being  raised  and  lowered, 
and  projecting  from  a  pivoted  post,  so  that  the  long 
arm  could  be  swung  over  or  away  from  the  fire.  At 
one  end  of  the  single  apartment  were  two  roomy 
bunks  built  against  the  wall.  With  extraordinary 
skill  and  quickness  the  Indians  whittled  a  spade  out 
of  a  board,  performing  the  task  with  an  axe,  an  im- 
plement they  can  use  as  white  men  use  a  penknife, 
an  implement  they  value  more  highly  than  a  gun. 
They  made  a  broom  of  balsam  boughs,  and  dug 
and  swept  the  dirt  off  the  floor  and  walls,  speedily 
makin^  the  cabin  neat  and  clean.  Two  new  bunks 
were  put  up  for  us,  and  bedded  with  balsam  boughs 
and  skins.  Shelves  were  already  up,  and  spread 
with  pails  and  bottles,  tin  cups  and  plates,  knives  and 
forks,  canned  goods,  etc.  On  them  and  on  the  floor 
were  our  stores. 

We  had  a  week's  outfit,  and  we  needed  it,  because 
for  five  days  we  could  not  hunt  on  account  of  the 
crust  on  the  snow,  which  made  such  a  noise  when 
a  human  foot  broke  through  it  that  we  could  not 
have  approached  any  wild  animal  within  half  a  mile. 
On  the  third  day  it  rained,  but  without  melting  the 


AXTOINE  S    CABIN 


ANTOINE  S    MOOSE-YARD  95 

crust.  On  the  fourth  day  it  snowed  furiously,  bury- 
ing: the  crust  under  two  inches  of  snow.  On  the 
fifth  day  we  got  our  moose. 

In  the  mean  time  the  log- cabin  was  our  home. 
Alexandre  and  Pierre  cut  down  trees  every  day  for 
the  fire,  and  Pierre  disappeared  for  hours  every  now 
and  then  to  look  after  traps  set  for  otter,  beaver,  and 
marten.  Alphonse  attended  his  horses  and  served 
as  cook.  He  could  produce  hotter  tea  than  any 
other  man  in  the  world.  I  took  mine  for  a  walk  in 
the  arctic  cold  three  times  a  day,  the  artist  learned 
to  pour  his  from  one  cup  to  another  with  amazing 
dexterity,  and  the  Indians  (who  drank  a  quart  each 
of  orreen  tea  at  each  meal  because  it  was  stroncjer 
than  our  black  tea)  lifted  their  pans  and  threw  the 
liquid  fire  down  throats  that  had  been  inured  to 
high  wines.  Whenever  the  fire  was  low,  the  cold 
was  intense.  Whenever  it  was  heaped  with  logs,  all 
the  heat  flew  directly  through  the  roof,  and  spiral 
blasts  of  cold  air  were  sucked  through  every  crack 
between  logs  in  the  cabin  walls.  Whenever  the 
door  opened,  the  cabin  filled  with  smoke.  Smoke 
clung  to  all  we  ate  or  wore.  At  night  the  fire  kept 
burning  out,  and  we  arose  with  chattering  teeth  to 
build  it  anew.  The  Indians  were  then  to  be  seen 
with  their  blankets  pushed  down  to  their  knees, 
asleep  in  their  shirts  and  trousers.  At  meal-times 
we  had  bacon  or  pork,  speckled  or  lake  trout,  bread- 
and-butter,  stewed  tomatoes,  and  tea.  There  were 
two  stools  for  the  five  men,  but  they  only  compli- 
cated the  discomfort  of  those  who  got  them ;  for  it 
was  found  that  if  we  put  our  tin  plates  on  our  knees. 


q6  on  Canada's  frontier 

they  fell  off ;  if  we  held  them  in  one  hand,  we  could 
not  cut  the  pork  and  hold  the  bread  with  the  other 
hand ;  while  if  we  put  the  plates  on  the  floor  be- 
side the  tea,  we  could  not  reach  them.  In  a  month 
we  might  have  solved  the  problem.  Life  in  that  log 
shanty  was  precisely  the  life  of  the  early  settlers  of 
this  country.  It  was  bound  to  produce  great  char- 
acters or  early  death.  There  could  be  no  middle 
course  with  such  an  existence. 

Partridge  fed  in  the  brush  impudently  before  us. 
Rabbits  bobbed   about  in    the    clearing   before    the 
door.     Squirrels  sat  upon  the  logs  near  by  and  gor- 
mandized   and    chattered.      Great   saucy  birds,  like 
mouse-colored  robins,  and  known  to  the  Indians  as 
"  meat-birds,"  stole  our  provender  if  we  left  it  out-of- 
doors  half  an  hour,  and  one  day  we  saw  a  red  deer 
jump  in  the  bush  a  hundred  yards  away.    Yet  we  got 
no  game,  because  we  knew  there  was  a  moose-yard 
within  two  miles  on  one  side  and  within  three  miles 
on  the  other,  and  we  dared  not  shoot  our  rifles  lest 
we  frisfhten   the   moose.      Moose   was    all   we  were 
after.     There  was  a  lake  near  by,  and  the  trout  in 
those  lakes    up    there    attain    remarkable   size    and 
numbers.     We  heard  of  35-pound  speckled  trout,  of 
lake  trout  twice  as  large,  and  of  enormous  muskal- 
longe.     The  most  reliable  persons  told  of  lakes  far- 
ther ih  the  wilderness  where  the  trout  are  thick  as 
salmon  in  the  British  Columbia  streams — so  thick  as 
to  seem  to  fill  the  water.     We  were  near  a  lake  that 
was  supposed  to  have  been  fished  out  by  lumbermen 
a  year  before,  yet  it  was  no  sport  at  all  to  fish  there. 
With  a  short  stick  and  two  yards  of  line  and  a  bass 


I 


ANTOINE  S    MOOSE-YARD  99 

hook  baited  with  pork,  we  brought  up  four -pound 
and  five-pound  beauties  faster  than  we  wanted  them 
for  food.  Truly  we  were  in  a  splendid  hunting 
country,  like  the  Adirondacks  eighty  years  ago,  but 
thousands  of  times  as  extensive. 

Finally  we  started  for  moose.  Our  Indians  asked 
if  they  might  take  their  guns.  We  gave  the  permis- 
sion. Alexandre,  a  thin,  wiry  man  of  forty  years,  car- 
ried an  old  Henry  rifle  in  a  woollen  case  open  at  one 
end  like  a  stocking.  He  wore  a  short  blanket  coat 
and  tuque,  and  trousers  tied  tight  below  the  knee, 
and  let  into  his  moccasin-tops.  He  and  his  brother 
Fran9ois  are  famous  Hudson  Bay  Company  trappers, 
and  are  two-thirds  Algonquin  and  one-third  French. 
He  has  a  typical  swarthy,  angular  Indian  face  and  a 
French  mustache  and  goatee.  Naturally,  if  not  by 
rank,  a  leader  among  his  men,  his  manner  is  com- 
manding and  his  appearance  grave.  He  talks  bad 
French  fluently,  and  makes  wretched  headway  in 
English.  Pierre  is  a  short,  thickset,  walnut -stained 
man  of  thirty-five,  almost  pure  Indian,  and  almost  a 
perfect  specimen  of  physical  development.  He  sel- 
dom spoke  while  on  this  trip,  but  he  impressed  us 
with  his  strength,  endurance,  quickness,  and  knowl- 
edge of  woodcraft.  Poor  fellow  !  he  had  only  a  shot- 
gun, which  he  loaded  with  buckshot.  It  had  no 
case,  and  both  men  carried  their  pieces  grasped  by 
the  barrels  and  shouldered,  with  the  butts  behind 
them. 

We  set  out  in  Indian-file,  plunging  at  once  into 
the  bush.  Never  was  forest  scenery  more  exqui- 
sitely beautiful   than   on   that    morning"  as   the   day 


lOO  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

broke,  for  we  breakfasted  at  four  o'clock,  and  started 
immediately  afterwards.  Everywhere  the  view  was 
fairy -like.  There  was  not  snow  enough  for  snow- 
shoeing.  But  the  fresh  fall  of  snow  was  immacu- 
lately white,  and  flecked  the  scene  apparently  from 
earth  to  sky,  for  there  was  not  a  branch  or  twig  or 
limb  or  spray  of  evergreen,  or  wart  or  fungous  growth 
upon  any  tree  that  did  not  bear  its  separate  burden 
of  snow.  It  was  a  bridal  dress,  not  a  winding-sheet, 
that  Dame  Nature  was  trying  on  that  morning.  And 
in  the  bright  fresh  green  of  the  firs  and  pines  we  saw 
her  complexion  peeping  out  above  her  spotless  gown, 
as  one  sees  the  rosy  cheeks  or  black  eyes  of  a  girl 
wrapped  in  ermine. 

Mile  after  mile  we  walked,  up  mountain  and  down 
dale,  slapped  in  the  faces  by  twigs,  knocking  snow 
down  the  backs  of  our  necks,  slipping  knee-deep  in 
bog  mud,  tumbling  over  loose  stones,  climbing  across 
interlaced  logs,  dropping  to  the  height  of  one  thigh 
between  tree  trunks,  sliding,  falling,  tight-rope  walk- 
ing on  branches  over  thin  ice,  but  forever  following 
the  cat-like  tread  of  Alexandre,  with  his  seven-league 
stride  and  long-winded  persistence.  Suddenly  we 
came  to  a  queer  sort  of  clearing  dotted  with  protu- 
berances like  the  bubbles  on  molasses  beginning  to 
boil.  It  was  a  beaver  meadow.  The  bumps  in  the 
snow  covered  stumps  of  trees  the  beavers  had  gnawed 
down.  The  Indians  were  looking  at  some  trough 
like  tracks  in  the  snow,  like  the  trail  of  a  tired  man 
who  had  dragraed  his  heels.  "  Moose ;  Qfoine  this 
way,"  said  Alexandre ;  and  we  turned  and  walked  in 
the  tracks.     Across  the  meadow  and  across  a  lake 


ANTOINE  S    MOOSE-YARD 


103 


and  up  another  mountain  they  led  us.  Then  we 
came  upon  fresher  prints.  At  each  new  track  the 
Indians  stooped,  and  making  a  scoop  of  one  hand, 
brushed  the  new-fallen  snow  lightly  out  of  the  in- 
dentations. Thus  they  read  the  time  at  which  the 
print  was  made.  "  Las'  week,"  "  Day  'fore  yester- 
day," they  whispered.  Presently  they  bent  over 
again,  the  light  snow  flew,  and  one  whispered,  "  This 
morning." 

Stealthily  Alexandre  swept  ahead ;  very  carefully 
we  followed.  We  dared  not  break  a  twig,  or  speak, 
or  slip,  or  stumble.  As  it  was,  the  breaking  of  the 
crust  was  still  far  too  audible.  We  followed  a  little 
stream,  and  approached  a  thick  growth  of  tamarack. 
We  had  no  means  of  knowing  that  a  herd  of  moose 
was  lying  in  that  thicket,  resting  after  feeding.  We 
knew  it  afterwards.     Alexandre   motioned  to   us  to 


ON    THE   MOOSE   TRAIL 


104 


ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 


get  our  guns  ready.  We  each  threw  a  cartridge 
from  the  cylinder  into  the  barrel,  making  a  "  click, 
click  "  that  was  abominably  loud.  Alexandre  forged 
ahead.  In  five  minutes  we  heard  him  call  aloud: 
"  Moose  orone.     We  los'  him."     We  hastened  to  his 

o 

side.  He  pointed  at  some  tracks  in  which  the  prints 
were  closer  together  than  any  we  had  seen. 

"See!  he  trot,"  Alexandre  explained. 

In  another  five  minutes  we  had  all  but  completed 
a  circle,  and  were  on  the  other  side  of  the  tamarack 
thicket.  And  there  were  the  prints  of  the  bodies  of 
the  great  beasts.  We  could  see  even  the  imprint  of 
the  hair  of  their  coats.  All  around  were  broken 
twists  and  balsam  needles.  The  moose  had  left  the 
branches  ragged,  and  on  every  hand  the  young  bark 
was  chewed  or  rubbed  raw.  Loading  our  rifles  had 
lost  us  a  herd  of  moose. 

Back  once  again  at  the  beaver  dam,  Alexandre 
and  Pierre  studied  the  moose  -  tramped  snow  and 
talked  earnestly.  They  agreed  that  a  desperate  bat- 
tle had  been  fought  there  between  two  bull  moose  a 
week  before,  and  that  those  bulls  were  not  in  the 
"  yard "  where  we  had  blundered.  They  examined 
the  tracks  over  an  acre  or  more,  and  then  strode  off 
at  an  obtuse  angle  from  our  former  trail.  Pierre,  ap- 
parently not  quite  satisfied,  kept  dropping  behind  or 
disappearing  in  the  bush  at  one  side  of  us.  So  mag- 
nificent was  his  skill  at  his  work  that  I  missed  him 
at  times,  and  at  other  times  found  him  putting  his 
feet  down  where  mine  were  lifted  up  without  ever 
hearing  a  sound  of  his  step  or  of  his  contact  with 
the  undergrowth.     Alexandre  presently  motioned  us 


^      Mf^wPB 


ANTOINE  S    MOOSE-YARD  IO7 

with  a  warning  gesture.  He  slowed  his  pace  to 
short  steps,  with  long  pauses  between.  He  saw 
everything  that  moved,  heard  every  sound ;  only  a 
deer  could  throw  more  and  keener  faculties  into  play 
than  this  born  hunter.  He  heard  a  twig  snap.  We 
heard  nothing.  Pierre  was  away  on  a  side  search. 
Alexandre  motioned  us  to  be  ready.  We  crept  close 
together,  and  I  scarcely  breathed.  We  moved  cau- 
tiously, a  step  at  a  time,  like  chessmen.  It  was  im- 
possible to  get  an  unobstructed  view  a  hundred  feet 
ahead,  so  thick  was  the  soft-wood  growth.  It  seemed 
out  of  the  question  to  try  to  shoot  that  distance. 
We  were  descending  a  hill-side  into  marshy  ground. 
We  crossed  a  corner  of  a  grove  of  young  alders,  and 
saw  before  us  a  gentle  slope  thickly  grown  with 
evergreen — tamarack,  the  artist  called  it.  Suddenly 
Alexandre  bent  forward  and  raised  his  gun.  Two 
steps  forward  gave  us  his  view.  Five  moose  were 
fifty  yards  away,  alarmed  and  ready  to  run.  A  big 
bull  in  the  front  of  the  group  had  already  thrown 
back  his  antlers.  By  impulse  rather  than  through 
reason  I  took  aim  at  a  second  bull.  He  was  half  a 
height  lower  down  the  slope,  and  to  be  seen  through 
a  web  of  thin  foliage.  Alexandre  and  the  artist  fired 
as  with  a  single  pull  at  one  trigger.  The  foremost 
bull  staggered  and  fell  forward,  as  if  his  knees  had 
been  broken.  He  was  hit  twice — in  the  heart  and 
in  the  neck.  The  second  bull  and  two  cows  and  a 
calf  plunged  into  the  bush  and  disappeared.  Pierre 
found  that  bull  a  mile  away,  shot  through  the  lungs. 
It  had  taken  us  a  week  to  kill  our  moose  in  a 
country  where  they  were  common  game.     That  was 


lOS  ON    CANADA S    FRONTIER 

"  hunter's  luck  "  with  a  vengeance.  But  at  another 
season  such  a  delay  could  scarcely  occur.  The  time 
to  visit  that  district  is  in  the  autumn,  before  snow 
falls.  Then  in  a  week  one  ought  to  be  able  to  bag 
a  moose,  and  move  into  the  region  where  caribou 
are  plenty. 

Mr.  Remington,  in  the  picture  called  "  Hunting  the 
Caribou,"  depicts  a  scene  at  a  critical  moment  in  the 
experience  of  any  man  who  has  journeyed  on  west- 
ward of  where  we  found  our  moose,  to  hunt  the  cari- 
bou. There  is  a  precise  moment  for  shooting  in  the 
chase  of  all  animals  of  the  deer  kind,  and  when  that 
moment  has  been  allowed  to  pass,  the  chance  of  se- 
curing the  animal  diminishes  with  astonishing  rapid- 
ity— with  more  than  the  rapidity  with  which  the  then 
startled  animal  is  making  his  flight,  because  to  his 
flight  you  must  add  the  increasing  ambush  of  the 
forest.  What  is  true  of  caribou  in  this  respect  is  true 
of  moose  and  red  deer,  elk  and  musk-ox  in  America, 
and  of  all  the  horned  animals  of  the  forests  of  the 
other  great  hemisphere.  Every  hunter  who  sees  Mr. 
Remington's  realistic  picture  knows  at  a  glance  that 
the  two  men  have  stolen  noiselessly  to  within  easy 
rifle-shot  of  a  caribou,  and  that  suddenly,  at  the  last 
moment,  the  animal  has  heard  them. 

Perhaps  he  has  seen  them,  and  is  standing — still 
as  a  Barye  bronze — with  his  great,  soft,  wondering 
eyes  riveted  upon  theirs.  That  is  a  situation  famil- 
iar to  every  hunter.  His  prey  has  been  browsing  in 
fancied  security,  and  yet  with  that  nervous  prudence 
that  causes  these  timid  beasts  to  keep  forever  rais- 
ing their  heads,  and  sweeping  the  view  around  them 


i 


with  their  exquisite  sight,  and  analyzing  the  atmos- 
phere with  their  magical  sense  of  smell.  In  one  of 
these  cautious  pauses  the  caribou  has  seen  the  hunt- 
ers. Both  hunters  and  hunted  seem  instantly  to 
turn  to  stone.  Neither  moves  a  muscle  or  a  hair.  If 
the  knee  or  the  foot  of  one  of  the  men  presses  too 
hard  upon  a  twig  and  it  snaps,  the  caribou  is  as  cer- 
tain to  throw  his  head  high  up  and  dart  into  the  in- 
gulfing net-work  of  the  forest  trunks  and  brush  as 
day  is  certain  to  follow  night.  But  when  no  move- 
ment has  been  made  and  no  mishap  has  alarmed  the 
beast,  it  has  often  happened  that  the  two  or  more 
parties  to  this  strangely  thrilling  situation  have  held 
their  places  for  minutes  at  a  stretch  —  minutes  that 
seemed  like  quarters  of  an  hour.  In  such  cases  the 
deer  or  caribou  has  been  known  to  lower  his  head 
and  feed  again,  assured  in  its  mind  that  the  suspect- 


no  ON    CANADA  S   FRONTIER 

ed  hunter  is  inanimate  and  harmless.  Nine  times  in- 
ten,  though,  the  first  to  move  is  the  beast,  which 
tosses  up  its  head,  and  "  Shoot !  shoot !"  is  the  in- 
stant command,  for  the  upward  throwing  of  the  head 
is  a  movement  made  to  put  the  beast's  great  antlers 
into  position  for  flight  through  the  forest. 

The  caribou  has  very  wide,  heavy  horns,  and  they 
are  almost  always  circular — that  is,  the  main  part  or 
trunk  of  each  horn  curves  outward  from  the  skull 
and  then  inward  towards  the  point,  in  an  almost  true 
semicircle.  They  are  more  or  less  branched,  but 
both  the  general  shape  of  the  whole  horns  and  of  the 
branches  is  such  that  when  the  head  is  thrown  up 
and  back  they  aid  the  animal's  flight  by  presenting 
what  may  be  called  the  point  of  a  wedge  towards  the 
saplings  and  limbs  and  small  forest  growths  through 
which  the  beast  runs,  parting  and  spreading  every 
pair  of  obstacles  to  either  side,  and  bending  every 
single  one  out  of  the  way  of  his  flying  body.  The 
caribou  of  North  America  is  the  reindeer  of  Green- 
land ;  the  differences  between  the  two  are  very  slight. 
The  animal's  home  is  the  arctic  circle,  but  in  Amer- 
ica it  feeds  and  roams  farther  south  than  in  Europe 
and  Asia.  It  is  a  large  and  clumsy -looking  beast, 
with  thick  and  rather  short  legs  and  bulky  body,  and, 
seen  in  repose,  gives  no  hint  of  its  capacity  for  flight. 
Yet  the  caribou  can  run  "  like  a  streak  of  wind,"  and 
makes  its  way  through  leaves  and  brush  and  brittle, 
sapless  vegetation  with  a  modicum  of  noise  so  slight 
as  to  seem  inexplicable.  Nature  has  ingeniously 
added  to  its  armament,  always  one,  and  usually  two, 
palmated  spurs   at  the  root  of  its  horns,  and  these 


ANTOINES    MOOSE-YARD  II3 

grow  at  an  obtuse  angle  with  the  head,  upward  and 
outward  towards  the  nose.  With  these  spurs — Hke 
shovels  used  sideways  —  the  caribou  roots  up  the 
snow,  or  breaks  its  crust  and  disperses  it,  to  get  at 
his  food  on  the  ground.  The  caribou  are  very  large 
deer,  and  their  strength  is  attested  by  the  weight  of 
their  horns.  I  have  handled  caribou  horns  in  Can- 
ada that  I  could  not  hold  out  with  both  hands  when 
seated  in  a  chair.  It  seemed  hard  to  believe  that  an 
animal  of  the  size  of  a  caribou  could  carry  a  burden 
apparently  so  disproportioned  to  his  head  and  neck. 
But  it  is  still  more  difficult  to  believe,  as  all  the 
woodsmen  say,  that  these  horns  are  dropped  and 
new  ones  grown  every  year. 

It  is  not  the  especial  beauty  of  Frederic  Reming- 
ton's drawings  and  paintings  that  they  are  absolutely 
accurate  in  every  detail,  but  it  is  one  of  their  beau- 
ties, and  gives  them  especial  value  apart  from  their 
artistic  excellence.  He  draws  what  he  knows,  and 
he  knows  what  he  draws.  This  scene  of  the  electri- 
cally exquisite  moment  in  a  hunter's  life,  when  great 
game  is  before  him,  and  the  instant  has  come  for 
claiming  it  as  his  own  with  a  steadily  held  and  wise- 
ly chosen  aim,  will  give  the  reader  a  perfect  knowl- 
edge of  how  the  Indians  and  hunters  dress  and  equip 
themselves  beyond  the  Canadian  border.  The  scene 
is  in  the  wilderness  north  of  the  Great  Lakes.  The 
Indian  is  of  one  of  those  tribes  that  are  offshoots  of 
the  great  Algonquin  nation.  He  carries  in  that  load 
he  bears  that  which  the  plainsmen  call  "  the  grub 
stake,"  or  quota  of  provisions  for  himself  and  his  em- 
ployer, as   well   as   blankets  to  sleep  in,  pots,  pans, 


114  OX    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

sugar,  the  inevitable  tea  of  those  latitudes,  and  much 
else  besides.  Those  Indians  are  not  as  lazy  or  as 
physically  degenerate  as  many  of  the  tribes  in  our 
country.  They  turn  themselves  into  wonderful  beasts 
of  burden,  and  go  forever  equipped  with  a  long,  broad 
strap  that  they  call  a  "  tomp  line,"  and  which  they 
pass  around  their  foreheads  and  around  their  packs, 
the  latter  resting  high  up  on  their  backs.  It  seems 
incredible,  but  they  can  carry  one  hundred  to  one 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  necessaries  all  day  long 
in  the  roughest  regions.  The  Hudson  Bay  Company 
made  their  ancestors  its  wards  and  dependents  two 
centuries  ago,  and  taught  them  to  work  and  to  earn 
their  livelihood. 


BIG    FISHING 

IN  October  every  year  there  are  apt  to  be  more 
fish  upon  the  land  in  the  Nepigon  country  than 
one  would  suppose  could  find  life  in  the  waters. 
Most  families  have  laid  in  their  full  winter  supply, 
the  main  exceptions  being  those  semi-savage  families 
which  leave  their  fish  out  —  in  preference  to  laying 
them  in — upon  racks  whereon  they  are  to  be  seen  in 
rows  and  by  the  thousands. 

Nepigon,  the  old  Hudson  Bay  post  which  is  the 
outfitting  place  for  this  region,  is  928  miles  west 
of  Montreal,  on  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  and 
on  an  arm  of  Lake  Superior.  The  Nepigon  River, 
which  connects  the  greatest  of  lakes  with  Lake  Ne- 
pigon, is  the  only  roadway  in  all  that  country,  and 
therefore  its  mouth,  in  an  arm  of  the  great  lake,  is 
the  front  door  to  that  wonderful  region.  In  travel- 
ling through  British  Columbia  I  found  one  district 
that  is  going  to  prove  of  greater  interest  to  gentle- 
men sportsmen  with  the  rod,  but  I  know  of  no  great- 
er fishing  country  than  the  Nepigon.  No  single 
waterway  or  system  of  navigable  inland  waters  in 
North  America  is  likely  to  wrest  the  palm  from  this 
Nepigon  district  as  the  haunt  of  fish  in  the  greatest 
plenty,  unless  we  term  the  sahiion  a  fresh-water  fish, 
and  thus  call  the  Fraser,  Columbia,  and  Skeena  riv- 


ii6  ON  Canada's  frontier 

ers  into  the  rivalry.  There  is  incessant  fishing  in 
this  wilderness  north  of  Lake  Superior  from  New- 
year's  Day,  when  the  ice  has  to  be  cut  to  get  at  the 
water,  all  through  the  succeeding  seasons,  until  again 
the  ice  fails  to  protect  the  game.  And  there  is  ev- 
ery sort  of  fishing  between  that  which  engages  a 
navy  of  sailing  vessels  and  men,  down  through  all 
the  methods  of  fish-taking  —  by  nets,  by  spearing, 
still  fishing,  and  fly-fishing.  A  half  a  dozen  sorts  of 
finny  game  succumb  to  these  methods,  and  though 
the  region  has  been  famous  and  therefore  much  vis- 
ited for  nearly  a  dozen  years,  the  field  is  so  extensive, 
so  well  stocked,  and  so  difficult  of  access  except  to 
persons  of  means,  that  even  to-day  almost  the  very 
largest  known  specimens  of  each  class  of  fish  are  to 
be  had  there. 

If  we  could  put  on  wings  early  in  October,  and 
could  fly  down  from  James's  Bay  over  the  dense  for- 
ests and  countless  lakes  and  streams  of  western  On- 
tario, we  would  see  now  and  then  an  Indian  or  hunt- 
er in  a  canoe,  here  and  there  a  lonely  huddle  of  small 
houses  forming  a  Hudson  Bay  post,  and  at  even 
greater  distances  apart  small  bunches  of  the  cotton 
or  birch-bark  tepees  of  pitiful  little  Cree  or  OJibaway 
bands.  But  with  the  first  glance  at  the  majestic  ex- 
panse of  Lake  Superior  there  would  burst  upon  the 
view  scores  upon  scores  of  white  sails  upon  the  wa- 
ter, and  near  by,  upon  the  shore,  a  tent  for  nearly 
every  sail.  That  is  the  time  for  the  annual  gather- 
ing for  catching  the  big,  chunky,  red-fleshed  fish  they 
call  the  salmon-trout.  They  catch  those  that  weigh 
from  a  dozen  to  twenty-five  or  thirty  pounds,  and  at 


BIG    FISHING 


117 


this   time   of  the   year   their  flesh   is    comparatively 
hard. 

Engaged  in  making  this  great  catch  are  the  boats 
of  the  Indians  from  far  up  the  Nepigon  and  the 
neighboring  streams ;  of  the  chance  white  men  of 
the  region,  who  depend  upon  nature  for  their  suste- 
nance;  and  of  Finns,  Norwegians,  Swedes,  and  oth- 
ers who  come  from  the  United  States  side,  or  south- 
ern shore,  to  fish  for  their  home  markets.  These 
fish  come  at  this  season  to  spawn,  seeking  the  reefs, 
which  are  plentiful  off  the  shore  in  this  part  of  the 
lake.  Gill  nets  are  used  to  catch  them,  and  are  set 
within  five  fathoms  of  the  surface  by  setting  the  in- 
ner buoy  in  water  of  that  depth,  and  then  paying  the 
net  out  into  deeper  water  and  anchoring  it.  The 
run  and  the  fishing  continue  throughout  October. 
As  a  rule,  among  the  Canadians  and  Canada  Ind- 
ians a  family  goes  with  each  boat — the  boats  being 
sloops  of  twenty-seven  to  thirty  feet  in  length,  and 
capable  of  carrying  fifteen  pork  barrels,  which  are  at 
the  outset  filled  with  rock-salt.  Sometimes  the  heads 
of  two  families  are  partners  in  the  ownership  of  one 
of  these  sloops,  but,  however  that  may  be,  the  cus- 
tom is  for  the  w^omen  and  children  to  camp  in  tents 
along-shore,  while  the  men  (usually  two  men  and  a 
boy  for  each  boat)  work  the  nets.  It  is  a  stormy 
season  of  the  year,  and  the  work  is  rough  and  haz- 
ardous, especially  for  the  nets,  which  are  frequently 
lost. 

Whenever  a  haul  is  made  the  fish  are  split  down 
the  back  and  cleaned.  Then  they  are  washed,  rolled 
in  salt,  and  packed  in  the  barrels.     Three  days  later, 


Il8  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

when  the  bodies  of  the  fish  have  thoroughly  purged 
themselves,  they  are  taken  out,  washed  again,  and 
are  once  more  rolled  in  fresh  salt  and  put  back  in 
the  barrels,  which  are  then  filled  to  the  top  with  wa- 
ter. The  Indians  subsist  all  winter  upon  this  Octo- 
ber catch,  and,  in  addition,  manage  to  exchange  a 
few  barrels  for  other  provisions  and  for  clothing. 
They  demand  an  equivalent  of  six  dollars  a  barrel 
in  whatever  they  get  in  exchange,  but  do  not  sell 
for  money,  because,  as  I  understand  it,  they  are  not 
obliged  to  pay  the  provincial  license  fee  as  fishermen, 
and  therefore  may  not  fish  for  the  market.  Even 
sportsmen  who  throw  a  fly  for  one  day  in  the  Nepi- 
gon  country  must  pay  the  Government  for  the  privi- 
lege. The  Indians  told  me  that  eight  barrels  of 
these  fish  will  last  a  family  of  six  persons  an  entire 
winter.  Such  a  demonstration  of  prudence  and  fore- 
thought as  this,  of  a  month's  fishing  at  the  threshold 
of  winter,  amounts  to  is  a  rare  one  for  an  Indian  to 
make,  and  I  imagine  there  is  a  strong  admixture  of 
white  blood  in  most  of  those  who  make  it.  The  full- 
bloods  will  not  take  the  trouble.  They  trust  to  their 
guns  and  their  traps  against  the  coming  of  that  wolf 
which  they  are  not  unused  to  facing. 

Up  along  the  shores  of  Lake  Nepigon,  which  is 
thirty  miles  by  an  air  line  north  of  Lake  Superior, 
many  of  the  Indians  lay  up  white-fish  for  winter. 
They  catch  them  in  nets  and  cure  them  by  frost. 
They  do  not  clean  them.  They  simply  make  a  hole 
in  the  tail  end  of  each  fish,  and  string  them,  as 
if  they  were  beads,  upon  sticks,  which  they  set  up 
into  racks.     Thcv  usuallv  hanfj  the  fishes   in  rows 


1^?:^ 


.     :>^\  ' 


INDIANS    HAULING   NETS    ON    LAKE   NEPIGON 


of  ten,  and  frequently  store  up  thousands  while  they 
are  at  it.  The  Reverend  Mr.  Renison,  who  has  had 
much  to  do  with  bettering  the  condition  of  these 
Indians,  told  me  that  he  had  caught  1020  pounds 
of  white-fish  in  two  nights  with  two  gill  nets  in 
Lake  Nepigon.  It  is  unnecessary  to  add  that  he 
cleaned  his. 

Lake  Nepigon  is  about  seventy  miles  in  length, 
and  two-thirds  as  wnde,  at  the  points  of  its  greatest 
measurement,  and  is  a  picturesque  body  of  water, 
surrounded  by  forests  and  dotted  with  islands.      It  is 


120  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

a  famous  haunt  for  trout,  and  those  fishermen  who 
are  lucky  may  at  times  see  scores  of  great  beauties 
lying  upon  the  bottom ;  or,  with  a  good  guide  and  at 
the  right  season,  may  be  taken  to  places  where  the 
water  is  fairly  astir  with  them.  Fishermen  W'ho  are 
not  lucky  may  get  their  customary  experience  with- 
out travelling  so  far,  for  the  route  is  by  canoe,  on 
top  of  nearly  a  thousand  miles  of  railroading;  and 
one  mode  of  locomotion  consumes  nearly  as  much 
time  as  the  other,  despite  the  difference  between 
the  respective  distances  travelled.  The  speckled 
trout  in  the  lake  are  locally  reported  to  weigh  from 
three  to  nine  pounds,  but  the  average  stranger  will 
lift  in  more  of  three  pounds'  weight  than  he  will  of 
nine.  Yet  whatever  they  average,  the  catching  of 
them  is  prime  sport  as  you  float  upon  the  water  in 
your  picturesque  birch-bark  canoe,  with  your  guide 
paddling  you  noiselessly  along,  and  your  spoon  or 
artificial  minnow  rippling  through  the  water  or  glint- 
ing in  the  sunlight.  You  need  a  stout  bait-rod,  for 
the  gluttonous  fish  are  game,  and  make  a  good  fight 
every  time.  The  local  fishermen  catch  the  speckled 
beauties  with  an  unpoetic  lump  of  pork. 

A  lively  French  Canadian  whom  I  met  on  the 
cars  on  my  way  to  Nepigon  described  that  region  as 
"  de  mos'  tareeble  place  for  de  fish  in  all  over  de 
worl'."  And  he  added  another  remark  which  had  at 
least  the  same  amount  of  truth  at  the  bottom  of  it. 
Said  he :  "  You  weel  find  dere  dose  Mees  Nancy 
feeshermans  from  der  Unite  State,  vhich  got  dose 
hunderd-dollar  poles  and  dose  leetle  humbug  flies, 
vhich  dey  t'row  around  and  pull  'em  back  again,  like 


BIG    FISHING  121 

dey  was  afraid  some  feesh  would  bite  it.  Dat  is  all 
one  grand  stupeedity.  Dose  man  vhich  belong  dere 
put  on  de  hook  some  pork,  and  catch  one  tareeble 

pile  of  fish.     Dey  don't  give  a about  style,  only 

to  catch  dose  feesh." 

To  be  sure,  every  fisherman  who  prides  himself 
on  the  distance  he  can  cast,  and  who  owns  a  splen- 
did outfit,  will  despise  the  spirit  of  that  French  Ca- 
nadian's speech;  yet  up  in  that  country  many  a  sci- 
entific angler  has  endured  a  failure  of  "  bites  "  for  a 
long  and  weary  time,  while  his  guide  was  hauling  in 
fish  a-plenty,  and  has  come  to  question  "  science  "  for 
the  nonce,  and  follow  the  Indian  custom.  For  gray 
trout  (the  namaycush,  or  lake  trout)  they  bait  with 
apparently  anything  edible  that  is  handiest,  prefer- 
ring pork,  rabbit,  partridge,  the  meat  of  the  trout  it- 
self, or  of  the  sucker ;  and  the  last  they  take  first,  if 
possible.  The  suckers,  by-the-way,  are  all  too  plenty, 
and  as  full  of  bones  as  any  old-time  frigate  ever  was 
with  timbers.  You  may  see  the  Indians  eating  them 
and  discarding  the  bones  at  the  same  time ;  and  they 
make  the  process  resemble  the  action  of  a  hay-cutter 
when  the  grass  is  going  in  long  at  one  side,  and 
coming  out  short,  but  in  equal  quantities,  at  the 
other. 

The  namaycush  of  Nepigon  weigh  from  nine  to 
twenty-five  pounds.  The  natives  take  a  big  hook 
and  bait  it,  and  then  run  the  point  into  a  piece  of 
shiny,  newly-scraped  lead.  They  never  "play"  their 
bites,  but  give  them  a  tight  line  and  steady  pull. 
These  fish  make  a  game  struggle,  leaping  and  diving 
and  thrashing  the  water  until  the  gaff  ends  the  strug- 


122  OX    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

gle.  In  winter  there  is  as  good  sport  with  the  na- 
maycush,  and  it  is  managed  peculiarly.  The  Indians 
cut  into  the  ice  over  deep  water,  making  holes  at 
least  eighteen  inches  in  diameter.  Across  the  hole 
they  lay  a  stick,  so  that  when  they  pull  up  a  trout 
the  line  will  run  along  the  stick,  and  the  fish  will  hit 
that  obstruction  instead  of  the  resistant  ice.  If  a 
fish  struck  the  ice  the  chances  are  nine  to  one  that 
it  would  tear  off  the  hook.  Having  baited  a  hook 
with  pork,  and  stuck  the  customary  bit  of  lead  upon 
it,  they  sound  for  bottom,  and  then  measure  the  line 
so  that  it  will  reach  to  about  a  foot  and  a  half  above 
soundings — that  is  to  say,  off  bottom.  Then  they  be- 
gin fishing,  and  their  plan  is  (it  is  the  same  all  over 
the  Canadian  wilderness)  to  keep  jerking  the  line  up 
with  a  single,  quick,  sudden  bob  at  frequent  intervals. 
The  spring  is  the  time  to  catch  the  big  Nepigon 
jack-fish,  or  pike.  They  haunt  the  grassy  places  in 
little  bogs  and  coves,  and  are  caught  by  trolling.  A 
jack-fish  is  what  we  call  a  pike,  and  John  Watt,  the 
famous  guide  in  that  country,  tells  of  those  fish  of 
such  size  that  when  a  man  of  ordinary  height  held 
the  tail  of  one  up  to  his  shoulder,  the  head  of  the 
fish  dragged  on  the  ground.  He  must  be  responsi- 
ble for  the  further  assertion  that  he  saw  an  Indian 
squaw  drag  a  net,  with  meshes  seven  inches  square, 
and  catch  two  jack-fish,  each  of  which  weighed  more 
than  fifty  pounds  when  cleaned.  The  story  another 
local  historian  told  of  a  surveyor  who  caught  a  big 
jack-fish  that  felt  like  a  sunken  log,  and  could  only 
be  dragged  until  its  head  came  to  the  surface,  when 
he  shot  it  and   it  l:)roke  awav — that  narrative   I  will 


BIG    FISHING  123 

leave  for  the  next  New  Yorker  who  goes  to  Nepigon. 
And  yet  it  seems  to  me  that  such  stories  distinguish 
a  fishing  resort  quite  as  much  as  the  fish  actually 
cau2:ht  there.  Men  would  not  dare  to  romance  like 
that  at  many  places  I  have  fished  in,  where  the  trout 
are  scheduled  and  numbered,  and  where  you  have 
got  to  go  to  a  certain  rock  on  a  fixed  day  of  the 
month  to  catch  one. 

The  Indians  are  very  clever  at  spearing  the  jack- 
fish.  At  night  they  use  a  bark  torch,  and  slaughter 
the  big  fish  with  comparative  ease ;  but  their  great 
skill  with  the  spear  is  shown  in  the  daytime,  when 
the  pike  are  sunning  themselves  in  the  grass  and 
weeds  along-shore.  But  when  I  made  my  trip  up 
the  river,  I  saw  them  using  so  many  nets  as  to 
threaten  the  early  reduction  of  the  stream  to  the 
plane  of  the  ordinary  resort.  The  water  was  so 
clear  that  we  could  paddle  beside  the  nets  and  see 
each  one's  catch — here  a  half-dozen  suckers,  there  a 
jack-fish,  and  next  a  couple  of  beautiful  trout.  Find- 
ing a  squaw  attending  to  her  net,  we  bought  a  trout 
from  her  before  we  had  cast  a  line.  The  habit  of 
buying  fish  under  such  circumstances  becomes  sec- 
ond nature  to  a  New  Yorker.  We  are  a  pecuHar 
people.  Our  fishermen  are  modest  away  from  the 
city,  but  at  home  they  assume  the  confident  tone 
which  comes  of  knowing  the  way  to  Fulton  fish- 
market. 

The  Nepigon  River  is  a  trout's  paradise,  it  is  so 
full  of  rapids  and  saults.  It  is  not  at  all  a  folly  to 
fish  there  with  a  fly-rod.  There  are  records  of  very 
large  trout  at  the   Hudson   Bay  post;  but  you  may 


124  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

actually  catch  four-pound  trout  yourself,  and  what 
you  catch  yourself  seems  to  me  better  than  any  one's 
else  records.  I  have  spoken  of  the  Nepigon  River 
as  a  roadway.  It  is  one  of  the  great  trading  trails  to 
and  from  the  far  North.  At  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
opposite  the  Hudson  Bay  post,  you  will  see  a  wreck 
of  one  of  its  noblest  vehicles — an  old  York  boat,  such 
as  carry  the  furs  and  the  supplies  to  and  fro.  I 
fancy  that  Wolseley  used  precisely  such  boats  to 
float  his  men  to  where  he  wanted  them  in  1870. 
Farther  along,  before  you  reach  the  first  portage,  you 
will  be  apt  to  see  several  of  the  sloops  used  by  the 
natives  for  the  Lake  Superior  fishing.  They  are  dis- 
tinguished for  their  ugliness,  capacity,  and  strength; 
but  the  last  two  qualities  are  what  they  are  built  to 
obtain.  Of  course  the  prettiest  vehicles  are  the 
canoes.  As  the  bark  and  the  labor  are  easily  ob- 
tainable, these  picturesque  vessels  are  very  numer- 
ous ;  but  a  change  is  coming  over  their  shape,  and 
the  historic  Ojibaway  canoe,  in  which  Hiawatha  is 
suppose'd  to  have  sailed  into  eternity,  will  soon  be  a 
thing  found  only  in  pictures. 

There  is  good  sport  with  the  rod  wherever  you 
please  to  go  in  "  the  bush,"  or  wilderness,  north  of 
the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  in  Ontario  and  the 
western  part  of  Quebec.  My  first  venture  in  fishing 
through  the  ice  in  that  region  was  part  of  a  hunting 
experience,  when  the  conditions  were  such  that  hunt- 
ing was  out  of  the  question,  and  our  party  feasted 
upon  salt  pork,  tea,  and  tomatoes  during  day  after  day. 
At  first,  fried  salt  pork,  taken  three  times  a  day  in  a 
hunter's  camp,  seems  not  to  deserve  the  harsh  things 


BIG    FISHING  125 

that  have  been  said  and  written  about  it.  The  open- 
air  life,  the  constant  and  tremendous  exercise  of 
hunting  or  chopping  wood  for  the  fire,  the  novel  sur- 
roundings in  the  forest  or  the  camp,  all  tend  to  make 
a  man  say  as  hearty  a  grace  over  salt  pork  as  he 
ever  did  at  home  before  a  holiday  dinner.  Where  we 
were,  up  the  Ottawa  in  the  Canadian  wilderness,  the 
pork  was  all  fat,  like  whale  blubber.  At  night  the 
cook  used  to  tilt  up  a  pan  of  it,  and  put  some  twisted 
ravellings  of  a  towel  in  it,  and  light  one  end,  and 
thus  produce  a  lamp  that  would  have  turned  Alfred 
the  Great  green  with  envy,  besides  smoking  his 
palace  till  it  looked  as  venerable  as  Westminster 
Abbey  does  now.  I  ate  my  share  seasoned  with  the 
comments  of  Mr.  Frederic  Remington,  the  artist, 
who  asserted  that  he  was  never  without  it  on  his 
hunting  trips,  that  it  was  pure  carbonaceous  food, 
that  it  fastened  itself  to  one's  ribs  like  a  true  friend, 
and  that  no  man  could  freeze  to  death  in  the  same 
country  with  this  astonishing  provender.  We  had 
canned  tomatoes  and  baker's  bread  and  plenty  of  tea, 
with  salt  pork  as  the  pCece  de  resistance  at  every  meal. 
I  know  now — though  I  would  not  have  confessed  it 
at  the  time — that  mixed  with  my  admiration  of  salt 
pork  was  a  growing  dread  that  in  time,  if  no  change 
offered  itself,  I  should  tire  of  that  diet.  I  began  to 
feel  it  sticking  to  me  more  like  an  Old  Man  of  the 
Sea  than  a  brother.  The  woodland  atmosphere  be- 
o-an  to  taste  of  it.  When  I  came  in-doors  it  seemed 
to  me  that  the  log  shanty  was  gradually  turning  into 
fried  salt  pork.  I  could  not  say  that  I  knew  how  it 
felt  to  eat  a  quail  a  day  for  thirty  days.     One  man 


126  ox    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

cannot  know  everything.  But  I  felt  that  I  was 
learning. 

One  day  the  cook  put  his  hat  on,  and  took  his  axe, 
and  started  out  of  the  shanty  door  with  an  unwonted 
air  of  business. 

"  Been  goin'  fish,"  said  he, in  broken  Indian.  "Good 
job  if  get  trout." 

A  good  job  ?  Why,  the  thought  was  like  a  float- 
ing spar  to  a  sailor  overboard !  I  went  with  him. 
It  was  a  cold  day,  but  I  was  dressed  in  Canadian 
style — the  style  of  a  country  where  every  one  puts 
on  everything  he  owns :  all  his  stockings  at  once,  all 
his  flannel  shirts  and  drawers,  all  his  coats  on  top  of 
one  another,  and  when  there  is  nothing  else  left, 
draws  over  it  all  a  blanket  suit,  a  pair  of  moccasins,  a 
tuque,  and  whatever  pairs  of  gloves  he  happens  to  be 
able  to  find  or  borrow.  One  gets  a  queer  feeling 
with  so  many  clothes  on.  They  seem  to  separate 
you  from  yourself,  and  the  person  you  feel  inside 
your  clothing  might  easily  be  mistaken  for  another 
individual.  But  you  are  warm,  and  that's  the  main 
thing. 

I  rolled  along  the  trail  behind  the  Indian,  through 
the  deathly  stillness  of  the  snow-choked  forest,  and 
presently,  from  a  knoll  and  through  an  opening,  we 
saw  a  great  woodland  lake.  As  it  lay  beneath  its 
unspotted  quilt  of  snow,  edged  all  around  with  bal- 
sam, and  pine  and  other  evergreens,  it  looked  as 
though  some  mighty  hand  had  squeezed  a  colossal 
tube  of  white  paint  into  a  tremendous  emerald  bowl. 
Never  had  I  seen  nature  so  perfectly  unalloyed,  so 
exquisitely  pure  and  peaceful,  so  irresistibly  beauti- 


BIG    FISHING  129 

ful.  I  think  I  should  have  hesitated  to  print  my 
ham-hke  moccasin  upon  that  virgin  sheet  had  I  been 
the  guide,  but  "  Brossy,"  the  cook,  stalked  ahead,  mak- 
ing the  powdery  flakes  fly  before  and  behind  him, 
and  I  followed.  Our  tracks  were  white,  and  quickly 
faded  from  view  behind  us ;  and,  moreover,  we  passed 
the  sio^ns  of  a  fox  and  a  deer  that  had  crossed  durino^ 
the  night,  so  that  our  profanation  of  the  scene  was 
neither  serious  nor  exclusive. 

The  Indian  walked  to  an  island  near  the  farther 
shore,  and  using  his  axe  with  the  light,  easy  freedom 
that  a  white  man  sometimes  attains  with  a  penknife, 
he  cut  two  short  sticks  for  fish-poles.  He  cut  six 
yards  of  fish- line  in  two  in  the  middle  of  the  piece, 
and  tied  one  end  of  each  part  to  one  end  of  each 
stick,  making  rude  knots,  as  if  any  sort  of  a  fastening 
would  do.  Equally  clumsily  he  tied  a  bass  hook  to 
each  fish-line,  and  on  each  hook  he  speared  a  little 
cube  of  pork  fat  which  had  gathered  an  envelope  of 
granulated  smoking -tobacco  while  at  rest  in  his 
pocket.  Next,  he  cut  two  holes  in  the  ice,  which  was 
a  foot  thick,  and  over  these  we  stood,  sticks  in  hand, 
with  the  lines  dangling  through  the  holes.  Hardly 
had  I  lowered  my  line  (which  had  a  bullet  flattened 
around  it  for  a  sinker,  by-the-way)  when  I  felt  it  jerked 
to  one  side,  and  I  pulled  up  a  three-pound  trout.  It 
was  a  speckled  trout.  This  surprised  me,  for  I  had  no 
idea  of  catching  anything  but  lake  or  gray  trout  in 
that  water.  I  caus^ht  a  sfrav  trout  next — a  smaller 
one  than  the  first  —  and  in  another  minute  I  had 
landed  another  three-pound  speckled  beauty.  My 
pork  bait  was  still  intact,  and  it  may  be  of  interest  to 

9 


130  ON    CANADA'S    FRONTIER 

fishermen  to  know  that  the  original  cubes  of  pork 
remained  on  those  two  hooks  a  week,  and  caught  us 
many  a  mess  of  trout. 

There  came  a  lull,  which  gave  us  time  to  philoso- 
phize on  the  contrast  between  this  sort  of  fishing 
and  the  fashionable  sport  of  using  the  most  costly 
and  delicate  rods — like  pieces  of  jewelry — and  of  cal- 
culating to  a  nicety  what  sort  of  flies  to  use  in  match- 
ing the  changing  weather  or  the  varying  tastes  of 
trout  in  waters  where  even  all  these  calculations  and 
provisions  would  not  yield  a  hatful  of  small  fish  in  a 
day.  Here  I  was,  armed  like  an  urchin  beside  a 
minnow  brook,  and  catching  bigger  trout  than  I  ever 
saw  outside  Fulton  Market — trout  of  the  choicest 
variety.  But  while  I  moralized  my  Indian  grew  im- 
patient, and  cut  himself  a  new  hole  out  over  deep 
water.  He  caught  a  couple  of  two-and-a-half-pound 
brook  trout  and  a  four-pound  gray  trout,  and  I  was 
as  well  rewarded.  But  he  was  still  discontented,  and 
moved  to  a  strait  opening  into  a  little  bay,  where  he 
cut  two  more  holes.  "  Eas'  wind,"  said  he,  "  fish  no 
bite." 

I  found  on  that  occasion  that  no  quantity  of  cloth- 
ing will  keep  a  man  warm  in  that  almost  arctic  cli- 
mate. First  my  hands  became  cold,  and  then  my 
feet,  and  then  my  ears.  A  thin  film  of  ice  closed  up 
the  fishing  holes  if  the  water  was  not  constantly  dis- 
turbed. The  thermometer  must  have  registered  ten 
or  fifteen  degrees  below  zero.  Our  lines  became 
quadrupled  in  thickness  at  the  lower  ends  by  the  ice 
that  formed  upon  them.  When  they  coiled  for  an 
instant  upon  the  ice  at  the  edge  of  a  hole,  they  stuck 


BIG    FISHING  131 

to  it,  frozen  fast.  By  stamping  my  feet  and  putting 
my  free  hand  in  my  pocket  as  fast  as  I  shifted  my 
pole  from  one  hand  to  the  other,  I  managed  to  per- 
sist in  fishing,  I  noticed  many  interesting  things  as 
I  stood  there,  almost  alone  in  that  almost  pathless 
wilderness.  First  I  saw  that  the  Indian  was  not 
cold,  though  not  half  so  warmly  dressed  as  I.  The 
circulation  or  vitality  of  those  scions  of  nature  must 
be  very  remarkable,  for  no  sort  of  weather  seemed 
to  trouble  them  at  all.  Wet  feet,  wet  bodies,  intense 
cold,  whatever  came,  found  and  left  them  indifferent. 
Night  after  night,  in  camp,  in  the  open  air,  or  in  our 
log  shanty,  we  white  men  trembled  with  the  cold  when 
the  log  fire  burned  low,  but  the  Indians  never  woke 
to  rebuild  it.  Indeed,  I  did  not  see  one  have  his 
blanket  pulled  over  his  chest  at  any  time.  Wood- 
cocks were  drumming  in  the  forest  now  and  then, 
and  the  shrill,  bird-like  chatter  of  the  squirrels  fre- 
quently rang  out  upon  the  forest  quiet.  My  Indian 
knew  every  noise,  no  matter  how  faint,  yet  never 
raised  his  head  to  listen.  "  Dat  squirrel,"  he  would 
say,  when  I  asked  him.  Or,  "  Woodcock,  him  call- 
ing rain,"  he  ventured.  Once  I  asked  what  a  very 
queer,  distant,  mufBed  sound  was.  "  You  hear  dat 
when  you  walk.  Keep  still,  no  hear  dat,"  he  said. 
It  was  the  noise  the  ice  made  when  I  moved. 

As  I  stood  there  a  squirrel  came  down  upon  a  log 
jutting  out  over  the  edge  of  the  lake,  and  looked  me 
over,  A  white  weasel  ran  about  in  the  bushes  so 
close  to  me  that  I  could  have  hit  him  with  a  peanut 
shell.  That  morning  some  partridge  had  been  seen 
feeding  in  the  bush  close  to  members  of  our  party. 


132  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

It  was  a  country  where  small  game  is  not  hunted, 
and  does  not  always  hide  at  man's  approach.  We 
had  left  our  fish  lying  on  the  ice  near  the  various 
holes  from  which  we  pulled  them,  and  I  thought  of 
them  when  a  flock  of  ravens  passed  overhead,  crying 
out  in  their  hoarse  tones.  They  were  sure  to  see 
the  fish  dotting  the  snow  like  raisins  in  a  bowl  of 
rice. 

"  Won't  they  steal  the  fish.?*"  I  asked. 

"  T'ink  not,"  said  the  Indian. 

"  I  don't  know  anything  about  ravens,"  I  said,  "  but 
if  they  are  even  distantly  related  to  a  crow,  they  will 
steal  whatever  they  can  lift." 

We  could  not  see  our  fish  around  the  bend  of  the 
lake,  so  the  Indian  dropped  his  rod  and  walked  stolid- 
ly after  the  birds.  As  soon  as  he  passed  out  of  sight 
I  heard  him  scolding  the  great  birds  as  if  they  were 
unruly  children. 

" 'Way,  there  !"  he  cried — "'way!  Leave  dat  fish, 
you.     What  you  do  dere,  you  t'ief  .f*" 

It  was  an  outcropping  of  the  French  blood  in  his 
veins  that  made  it  possible  for  him  to  do  such  vio- 
lence to  Indian  reticence.  The  birds  had  seen  our 
fish,  and  were  about  to  seize  them.  Only  the  fool- 
ish bird  tradition  that  renders  it  necessary  for  every- 
thing with  wings  to  circle  precisely  so  many  times 
over  its  prey  before  taking  it  saved  us  our  game  and 
lost  them  their  dinner.  They  had  not  completed 
half  their  quota  of  circles  when  Brossy  began  to  yell 
at  them.  When  he  returned  his  brain  had  awakened, 
and  he  began  to  remember  that  ravens  were  thieves. 
He  said  that  the  lumbermen  in  that  country  pack 


BIG    FISHING  133 

their  dinners  in  canvas  sacks  and  hide  them  in  the 
snow.  Often  the  ravens  come,  and,  searching  out 
this  food,  tear  off  the  sacks  and  steal  their  contents. 
I  bade  good-bye  to  pork  three  times  a  day  after  that. 
At  least  twice  a  day  we  feasted  upon  trout. 


VI 

"a  skin  for  a  skin" 

The  motto  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Fur-trading  Company 

THOSE  who  go  to  the  newer  parts  of  Canada  to- 
day will  find  that  several  of  those  places  which 
their  school  geographies  displayed  as  Hudson  Bay 
posts  a  few  years  ago  are  now  towns  and  cities.  In 
them  they  will  find  the  trading  stations  of  old  now 
transformed  into  general  stores.  Alongside  of  the  Ca- 
nadian headquarters  of  the  great  corporation,  where 
used  to  stand  the  walls  of  Fort  Garry,  they  will  see 
the  principal  store  of  the  city  of  Winnipeg,  an  institu- 
tion worthy  of  any  city,  and  more  nearly  to  be  likened 
to  Whiteley's  Necessary  Store  in  London  than  to  any 
shopping-place  in  New  York.  As  in  Whiteley's  you 
may  buy  a  house,  or  anything  belonging  in  or  around 
a  house,  so  you  may  in  this  great  Manitoban  estab- 
lishment. The  great  retail  emporium  of  Victoria, 
the  capital  of  British  Columbia,  is  the  Hudson  Bay 
store;  and  in  Calgary,  the  metropolis  of  Alberta  and 
the  Canadian  plains,  the  principal  shopping-place  in 
a  territory  beside  which  Texas  dwindles  to  the  pro- 
portions of  a  park  is  the  Hudson  Bay  store. 

These  and  many  other  shops  indicate  a  new  de- 
velopment ot  the  business  of  the  last  of  England's 
great  chartered  monopolies;  but  instead  of  marking 
the  manner  in  which  civilization  has  forced  it  to  aban- 


"a  skin  for  a  skin  135 

don  its  original  function,  this  merely  demonstrates 
that  the  proprietors  have  taken  advantage  of  new 
conditions  while  still  pursuing  their  original  trade.  It 
is  true  that  the  huge  corporation  is  becoming  a  great 
retail  shop-keeping  company.  It  is  also  true  that  by 
the  surrender  of  its  monopolistic  privileges  it  got  a 
consolation  prize  of  money  and  of  twenty  millions  of 
dollars'  worth  of  land,  so  that  its  chief  business  may 
yet  become  that  of  developing  and  selling  real  estate. 
But  to-day  it  is  still,  as  it  was  two  centuries  ago,  the 
greatest  of  fur-trading- corporations,  and  fur-trading 
is  to-day  a  principal  source  of  its  profits. 

Reminders  of  their  old  associations  as  forts  still 
confront  the  visitor  to  the  modern  city  shops  of  the 
company.  The  great  shop  in  Victoria,  for  instance, 
which,  as  a  fort,  was  the  hub  around  which  grew  the 
wheel  that  is  now  the  capital  of  the  province,  has  its 
fur  trade  conducted  in  a  sort  of  barn-like  annex  of 
the  bazaar;  but  there  it  is,  nevertheless,  and  busy 
among  the  great  heaps  of  furs  are  men  who  can  re- 
member when  the  Hydahs  and  the  T'linkets  and  the 
other  neighboring  tribes  came  down  in  their  war  ca- 
noes to  trade  their  winter's  catch  of  skins  for  guns 
and  beads,  vermilion,  blankets,  and  the  rest.  Now 
this  is  the  mere  catch-all  for  the  furs  got  at  posts 
farther  up  the  coast  and  in  the  interior.  But  up- 
stairs, above  the  store,  where  the  fashionable  ladies 
are  looking  over  laces  and  purchasing  perfumes,  you 
will  see  a  collection  of  queer  old  guns  of  a  pattern 
familiar  to  Daniel  Boone.  They  are  relics  of  the  fur 
company's  stock  of  those  famous  "trade-guns"  which 
disappeared  long  before  they  had  cleared  the  plains 


136  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

of  buffalo,  and  which  the  Indians  used  to  deck  with 
brass  nails  and  bright  paint,  and  value  as  no  man  to- 
day values  a  watch.  But  close  to  the  trade -guns  of 
romantic  memory  is  something  yet  more  highly  sug- 
gestive of  the  company's  former  position.  This  is  a 
heap  of  unclaimed  trunks,  "  left,"  the  employes  will 
tell  you,  "  by  travellers,  hunters,  and  explorers  who 
never  came  back  to  inquire  for  them." 

It  was  not  long  ago  that  conditions  existed  such 
as  in  that  region  rendered  the  disappearance  of  a 
traveller  more  than  a  possibility.  The  wretched, 
squat,  bow-legged,  dirty  laborers  of  that  coast,  who 
now  dress  as  we  do,  and  earn  good  wages  in  the  sal- 
mon-fishing and  canning  industries,  were  not  long 
ago  very  numerous,  and  still  more  villanous.  They 
were  not  to  be  compared  with  the  plains  Indians  as 
warriors  or  as  men,  but  they  were  more  treacherous, 
and  wanting  in  high  qualities.  In  the  interior  to-day 
are  some  Indians  such  as  they  were  who' are  accused 
of  cannibalism,  and  w^ho  have  necessitated  warlike 
defences  at  distant  trading- posts.  Travellers  who 
escaped  Indian  treachery  risked  starvation,  and  stood 
their  chances  of  losing  their  reckoning,  of  freezing  to 
death,  of  encounters  with  grizzlies,  of  snow-slides,  of 
canoe  accidents  in  rapids,  and  of  all  the  other  casual- 
ties of  life  in  a  territory  which  to-day  is  not  half  ex- 
plored. Those  are  not  the  trunks  of  Hudson  Bay 
men,  for  such  would  have  been  sent  home  to  Eng- 
lish and  Scottish  mourners ;  they  are  the  luggage  of 
chance  men  who  happened  along,  and  outfitted  at 
the  old  post  before  going  farther.  But  the  compa- 
ny's men  were  there  before  them,  had  penetrated  the 


iiimimii   \w     III 


/ 


"a  skin  for  a  skin  139 

region  farther  and  earlier,  and  there  they  are  to-day, 
carrying  on  the  fur  trade  under  conditions  strongly 
resembling  those  their  predecessors  once  encoun- 
tered at  posts  that  are  now  towns  in  farming  regions, 
and  where  now  the  locomotive  and  the  steamer  are 
familiar  vehicles.  Moreover,  the  status  of  the  com- 
pany in  British  Columbia  is  its  status  all  the  way 
across  the  North  from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic. 

To  me  the  most  interesting  and  picturesque  life  to 
be  found  in  North  America,  at  least  north  of  Mexico, 
is  that  which  is  occasioned  by  this  principal  phase  of 
the  company's  operations.  In  and  around  the  fur 
trade  is  found  the  most  notable  relic  of  the  white 
man's  earliest  life  on  this  continent.  Our  wild  life 
in  this  country  is,  happily,  gone.  The  frontiersman 
is  more  difficult  to  find  than  the  frontier,  the  cowboy 
has  become  a  laborer  almost  like  any  other,  our  Ind- 
ians are  as  the  animals  in  our  parks,  and  there  is 
little  of  our  country  that  is  not  threaded  by  railroads 
or  wagon-ways.  But  in  new  or  western  Canada  this 
is  not  so.  A  vast  extent  of  it  north  of  the  Canadian 
Pacific  Railway,  which  hugs  our  border,  has  been  ex- 
plored only  as  to  its  waterways,  its  valleys,  or  its  open 
plains,  and  where  it  has  been  traversed  much  of  it 
remains  as  Nature  and  her  near  of  kin,  the  red  men, 
had  it  of  old.  On  the  streams  canoes  are  the  vehi- 
cles of  travel  and  of  commerce ;  in  the  forests  "trails" 
lead  from  trading-post  to  trading- post,  the  people 
are  Indians,  half-breeds,  and  Esquimaux,  who  live  by 
hunting  and  fishing  as  their  forebears  did  ;  the  Hud- 
son Bay  posts  are  the  seats  of  white  population;  the 
post  factors  are  the  magistrates. 


I40  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

All  this  is  changing  with  a  rapidity  which  history 
will  liken  to  the  sliding  of  scenes  before  the  lens  of 
a  masic-lantern.  Miners  are  crushinq;  the  foot-hills 
on  either  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  farmers  and 
cattle-men  have  advanced  far  northward  on  the  prai- 
rie and  on  the  plains  in  narrow  lines,  and  railroads 
are  pushing  hither  and  thither.  Soon  the  limits  of 
the  inhospitable  zone  this  side  of  the  Arctic  Sea, 
and  of  the  marshy,  weakly-wooded  country  on  either 
side  of  Hudson  Bay  will  circumscribe  the  fur-trader's 
field,  except  in  so  far  as  there  may  remain  equally 
permanent  hunting-grounds  in  Labrador  and  in  the 
mountains  of  British  Columbia.  Therefore  now,  when 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company  is  laying  the  foundations 
of  widely  different  interests,  is  the  time  for  halting 
the  old  original  view  that  stood  in  the  stereopticon 
for  centuries,  that  we  may  see  what  it  revealed,  and 
will  still  show  far  lonfjer  than  it  takes  for  us  to 
view  it. 

The  Hudson  Bay  Company's  agents  were  not  the 
first  hunters  and  fur-traders  in  British  America,  an- 
cient as  was  their  foundation.  The  French,  from 
the  Canadas,  preceded  them  no  one  knows  how 
many  years,  though  it  is  said  that  it  was  as  early  as 
1627  that  Louis  XHI.  chartered  a  company  of  the 
same  sort  and  for  the  same  aims  as  the  English  com- 
pany. Whatever  came  of  that  corporation  I  do  not 
know,  but  by  the  time  the  Englishmen  established 
themselves  on  Hudson  Bay,  individual  Frenchmen 
and  half-breeds  had  jDenetrated  the  country  still  far- 
ther west.  They  were  of  hardy,  adventurous  stock, 
and  they  loved  the  free  roving  life  of  the  trapper  and 


■A    SKIN    FOR    A    SKIN 


141 


hunter.  Fitted  out  by  the  merchants  of  Canada, 
they  would  pursue  the  waterways  which  there  cut  up 
the  wilderness  in  every  direction,  their  canoes  laden 
with  goods  to  tempt  the  savages,  and  their  guns  or 
traps  forming  part  of  their  burden.  They  would  be 
gone  the  greater  part  of  a  year,  and  always  returned 
with  a  store  of  furs  to  be  converted  into  money, 
which  was,  in  turn,  dissipated  in  the  cities  with  devil- 
may-care  jollity.  These  were  the  coureiws  dit  bois, 
and  theirs  was  the  stock  from  which  came'  the  voy- 
ageiirs  of  the  next  era,  and  the  half-breeds,  who  joined 
the  service  of  the  rival  fur  companies,  and  who,  by- 
the-way,  reddened  the  history  of  the  North-west  ter- 
ritories with  the  little  bloodshed  that  mars  it. 

Charles  II.  of  England  was  made  to  believe  that 
wonders  in  the  way  of  discovery  and  trade  would 
result  from  a  grant  of  the  Hudson  Bay  territory 
to  certain  friends  and  petitioners.  An  experimental 
voyage  was  made  with  good  results  in  1668,  and  in 
1670  the  King  granted  the  charter  to  what  he  styled 
"  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Adventurers  of 
England  trading  into  Hudson's  Bay,  one  body  cor- 
porate and  politique,  in  deed  and  in  name,  really  and 
fully  forever,  for  Us,  Our  heirs,  and  Successors."  It 
was  indeed  a  royal  and  a  wholesale  charter,  for  the 
King  declared,  "  We  have  given,  granted,  and  con- 
firmed unto  said  Governor  and  Company  sole  trade 
and  commerce  of  those  Seas,  Streights,  Ba3'S,  Rivers, 
Lakes,  Creeks, and  Sounds,  in  whatsoever  latitude  they 
shall  be,  that  lie  within  the  entrance  of  the  Streights 
commonly  called  Hudson's,  together  with  all  the 
Lands,  Countries,  and  Territories    upon    the    coasts 


142 


ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 


and  confines  of  the  Seas,  etc.,  .  .  .  not  alread}^  actually- 
possessed  by  or  granted  to  any  of  our  subjects,  or  pos- 
sessed by  the  subjects  of  any  other  Christian  Prince 
or  State,  with  the  fishing  of  all  sorts  of  Fish,  Whales, 
Sturgeons,  and  all  other  Royal  Fishes,  ....  together 
with  the  Royalty  of  the  Sea  upon  the  Coasts  within 
the  limits  aforesaid,  and  all  Mines  Royal,  as  well  dis- 
covered as  not  discovered,  of  Gold,  Silver,  Gems,  and 
Precious  Stones,  ....  and  that  the  said  lands  be 
henceforth  reckoned  and  reputed  as  one  of  Our 
Plantations  or  Colonies  in  America  called  Rupert's 
Land."  For  this  gift  of  an  empire  the  corporation 
was  to  pay  yearly  to  the  king,  his  heirs  and  succes- 
sors, two  elks  and  two  black  beavers  whenever  and  as 
often  as  he,  his  heirs,  or  his  successors  "shall  hap- 
pen to  enter  into  the  said  countries."  The  company 
was  empowered  to  man  ships  of  war,  to  create  an 
armed  force  for  security  and  defence,  to  make  peace 
or  war  with  any  people  that  were  not  Christians,  and 
to  seize  any  British  or  other  subject  who  traded  in 
their  territory.  The  King  named  his  cousin,  Prince 
Rupert,  Duke  of  Cumberland,  to  be  first  governor, 
and  it  was  in  his  honor  that  the  new  territory  got  its 
name  of  Rupert's  Land. 

In  the  company  were  the  Duke  of  Albemarle, 
Earl  Craven,  Lords  Arlington  and  Ashley,  and  sev- 
eral knights  and  baronets.  Sir  Philip  Carteret  among 
them.  There  were  also  five  esquires,  or  gentlemen, 
and  John  Portman, "  citizen  and  goldsmith."  They 
adopted  the  witty  sentence,  "-Pro  pellc  ctikm'' {A 
skin  for  a  skin),  as  their  motto,  and  established  as 
their  coat  of  arms  a  fox  sejant  as  the  crest,  and  a 


THE  BEAR   TRAP 


shield  showing  four  beavers  in  the  quarters,  and  the 
cross  of  St.  George,  the  whole  upheld  by  two  stags. 

The  "  adventurers  "  quickly  established  forts  on  the 
shores  of  Hudson  Bay,  and  began  trading  with  the 
Indians,  with  such  success  that  it  was  rumored  they 
made  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent,  profit  every 
year.  But  they  exhibited  all  of  that  timidity  which 
capital  is  ever  said  to  possess.  They  were  nothing 
like  as  enterprising  as  the  French  cotireurs  du  bois. 
In    a   hundred   years    they  were    no    deeper   in    the 


U 


P 


144  ^N    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

country  than  at  first,  excepting  as  they  extended 
their  Httle  system  of  forts  or  "  factories  "  up  and  down 
and  on  either  side  of  Hudson  and  James  bays.  In 
view  of  their  profits,  perhaps  this  lack  of  enterprise 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  On  the  other  hand,  their 
charter  was  given  as  a  reward  for  the  efforts  they 
had  made,  and  were  to  make,  to  find  "  the  Northwest 
passage  to  the  Southern  seas."  In  this  quest  they 
made  less  of  a  trial  than  in  the  getting  of  furs ;  how 
much  less  w^e  shall  see.  But  the  company  had  no 
lack  of  brave  and  hardy  followers.  At  first  many 
of  the  men  at  the  factories  were  from  the  Orkney 
Islands,  and  those  islands  remained  until  rec.ent  times 
the  recruiting- source  for  this  service.  This  was  be- 
cause the  Orkney  men  were  inured  to  a  rigorous  cli- 
mate, and  to  a  diet  largely  composed  of  fish.  They 
were  subject  to  less  of  a  change  in  the  company's  serv- 
ice than  must  have  been  endured  by  men  from  almost 
any  part  of  England. 

I  am  going,  later,  to  ask  the  reader  to  visit  Rupert's 
Land  when  the  company  had  shaken  off  its  timidity, 
overcome  its  obstacles,  and  dotted  all  British  Amer- 
ica with  its  posts  and  forts.  Then  we  shall  see  the 
interiors  of  the  forts,  view  the  strange  yet  not  always 
hard  or  uncouth  life  of  the  company's  factors  and 
clerks,  and  glance  along  the  trails  and  watercourses, 
mainly  unchanged  to-day,  to  note  the  work  and  sur- 
roundings of  the  Indians,  the  voyagcurs,  and  the  rest 
who  inhabit  that  region.  But,  fortunately,  I  can  first 
show,  at  least  roughly,  much  that  is  interesting  about 
the  company's  growth  and  methods  a  century  and  a 
half   ago.     The    information    is    gotten    from    some 


"a  skin  for  a  skin  145 

English  Parliamentary  papers  forming  a  report  of  a 
committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1749. 

Arthur  Dobbs  and  others  petitioned  Parliament 
to  give  them  either  the  rights  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  or  a  similar  charter.  It  seems  that  Eng- 
land had  offered  ^20,000  reward  to  whosoever  should 
find  the  bothersome  passage  to  the  Southern  seas 
via  this  northern  route,  and  that  these  petitioners  had 
sent  out  two  ships  for  that  purpose.  They  said  that 
when  others  had  done  no  more  than  this  in  Charles 
n.'s  time,  that  monarch  had  given  them  "  the  greatest 
privileges  as  lords  proprietors  "  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
territory,  and  that  those  recipients  of  royal  favor 
were  bounden  to  attempt  the  discovery  of  the  de- 
sired passage.  Instead  of  this,  they  not  only  failed 
to  search  effectually  or  in  earnest  for  the  passage, 
but  they  had  rather  endeavored  to  conceal  the  same, 
and  to  obstruct  the  discovery  thereof  by  others. 
They  had  not  possessed  or  occupied  any  of  the  lands 
granted  to  them,  or  extended  their  trade,  or  made  any 
plantations  or  settlements,  or  permitted  other  British 
subjects  to  plant,  settle,  or  trade  there.  They  had 
established  only  four  factories  and  one  small  trading- 
house  ;  yet  they  had  connived  at  or  allowed  the 
French  to  encroach,  settle,  and  trade  within  their 
limits,  to  the  great  detriment  and  loss  of  Great 
Britain.  The  petitioners  argued  that  the  Hudson 
Bay  charter  was  monopolistic,  and  therefore  void, 
and  at  any  rate  it  had  been  forfeited  "  by  non-user  or 
abuser." 

In  the  course  of  the  hearing  upon  both  sides,  the 
"voyages    upon    discovery,"  according    to    the   com- 


146  ON  Canada's  frontier 

pany's  own  showing,  were  not  undertaken  until  the 
corporation  had  been  in  existence  nearly  fifty  years, 
and  then  the  search  had  only  been  prosecuted  during 
eighteen  years,  and  with  only  ten  expeditions.  Two 
ships  sent  out  from  England  never  reached  the  bay, 
but  those  which  succeeded,  and  were  then  ready  for 
adventurous  cruising,  made  exploratory  voyages  that 
lasted  only  between  one  month  and  ten  weeks,  so 
that,  as  we  are  accustomed  to  judge  such  expeditions, 
they  seem  farcical  and  mere  pretences.  Yet  their 
largest  ship  was  only  of  190  tons  burden,  and  the 
others  were  a  third  smaller — vessels  like  our  small 
coasting  schooners.  The  most  particular  instruc-- 
tions  to  the  captains  were  to  trade  with  all  natives, 
and  persuade  them  to  kill  whales,  sea-horses,  and 
seals  ;  and,  subordinately  and  incidentally,  "  by  God's 
permission,"  to  find  out  the  Strait  of  Annian,  a  fanci- 
ful sheet  of  water,  with  tales  of  which  that  irresponsi- 
ble Greek  sea-tramp,  Juan  de  Fuca,  had  disturbed  all 
Christendom,  saying  that  it  led  between  a  great  isl- 
and in  the  Pacific  (Vancouver)  and  the  mainland 
into  the  inland  lakes.  To  the  factors  at  their  forts 
the  company  sent  such  lukewarm  messages  as,  "  and 
if  you  can  by  any  means  find  out  any  discovery  or 
matter  to  the  northward  or  elsewhere  in  the  com- 
pany's interest  or  advantage,  do  not  fail  to  let  us 
know  every  year." 

The  attitude  of  the  company  towards  discovery 
suggests  a  Dogberry  at  its  head,  bidding  his  serv- 
ants to  "comprehend  "  the  North-west  passage,  but 
should  they  fail,  to  thank  God  they  were  rid  of  a 
villain.     In  truth,  they  were  traders  pure  and  simple, 


"A    SKIN    FOR    A    SKIN  " 


147 


and  were  making  great  profits  with  little  trouble  and 
expense. 

They  brought  from  England  about  ^4000  worth 
of  powder,  shot,  guns,  fire-steels,  flints,  gun-worms, 
powder-horns,  pistols,  hatchets,  sword  blades,  awl 
blades,  ice-chisels,  files,  kettles,  fish-hooks,  net- lines, 
burning-glasses,  looking-glasses,  tobacco,  brandy,  gog- 
gles, gloves,  hats,  lace,  needles,  thread,  thimbles, 
breeches,  vermilion,  worsted  sashes,  blankets,  flannels, 
red  feathers,  buttons,  beads,  and  "  shirts,  shoes,  and 
stockens."     They  spent,  in   keeping  up  their  posts 


,.--j1sd'' 


HUSKIE    DOGS    FIGHTING 


148  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

and  ships,  about  ^15,000,  and  in  return  they  brought 
to  England  castoruni,  whale-fins,  whale-oil,  deer-horns, 
goose-quills,  bed-feathers,  and  skins — in  all  of  a  value 
of  about  ^26,000  per  annum.  I  have  taken  the 
average  for  several  years  in  that  period  of  the  com- 
pany's history,  and  it  is  in  our  money  as  if  they  spent 
$90,000  and  got  back  $130,000,  and  this  is  their  own 
showing:  under  such  circumstances  as  to  make  it  the 
course  of  wisdom  not  to  boast  of  their  profits.  They 
had  three  times  trebled  their  stock  and  otherwise  in- 
creased it,  so  that  having  been  10,500  shares  at  the 
outset,  it  was  now  103,950  shares. 

And  now  that  we  have  seen  how  natural  it  was 
that  they  should  not  then  bother  with  exploration 
and  discovery,  in  view  of  the  remuneration  that  came 
for  simply  sitting  in  their  forts  and  buying  furs,  let 
me  pause  to  repeat  what  one  of  their  wisest  men  said 
casually,  between  the  whiffs  of  a  meditative  cigar,  last 
summer:  "The  search  for  the  north  pole  must  soon 
be  taken  up  in  earnest,"  said  he.  "  Man  has  paused 
in  the  undertaking  because  other  fields  where  his 
needs  were  more  pressing,  and  where  effort  was  more 
certain  to  be  rewarded  with  success,  had  been  neg- 
lected. This  is  no  longer  the  fact,  and  geographers 
and  other  students  of  the  subject  all  agree  that  the 
north  pole  must  next  be  sought  and  found.  Speak- 
ing only  on  my  own  account  and  from  my  knowl- 
edge, I  assert  that  whenever  any  government  is  in 
earnest  in  this  desire,  it  will  employ  the  men  of  this 
fur  service,  and  they  will  find  the  pole.  The  com- 
l^any  has  posts  far  within  the  arctic  circle,  and  they 
arc  manned  by  men  peculiarly  and  exactly  fitted  for 


A    SKIN    FOR    A    SKIN 


149 


the  adventure.  They  are  hardy,  acutely  intelligent, 
self-reliant,  accustomed  to  the  climate,  and  all  that  it 
engenders  and  demands.  They  are  on  the  spot 
ready  to  start  at  the  earliest  moment  in  the  season, 
and  they  have  with  them  all  that  they  will  need  on 
the  expedition.  They  would  do  nothing  hurriedly 
or  rashly ;  they  would  know  what  they  were  about  as 
no  other  white  men  would  —  and  they  would  get 
there." 

I  mention  this  not  merely  for  the  novelty  of  the 
suggestion  and  the  interest  it  may  excite,  but  because 
it  contributes  to  the  reader's  understanding  of  the 
scope  and  character  of  the  work  of  the  company.  It 
is  not  merely  Western  and  among  Indians,  it  is  hy- 
perborean and  among  Esquimaux.  But  would  it  not 
be  passing  strange  if,  beyond  all  that  England  has 
gained  from  the  careless  gift  of  an  empire  to  a  few 
favorites  by  Charles  II.,  she  should  yet  possess  the 
honor  and  glory  of  a  grand  discovery  due  to  the  nat- 
ural results  of  that  action  ? 

To  return  to  the  Parliamentary  inquiry  into  the 
company's  affairs  140  years  ago.  If  it  served  no 
other  purpose,  it  drew  for  us  of  this  day  an  outline 
picture  of  the  first  forts  and  their  inmates  and  cus- 
toms. Being  printed  in  the  form  our  language  took 
in  that  day,  when  a  gun  was  a  "musquet"  and  a 
stockade  was  a  "  palisadoe,"  we  fancy  we  can  see  the 
bumptious  governors  —  as  they  then  called  the  fac- 
tors or  agents  —  swelling  about  in  knee-breeches 
and  cocked  hats  and  colored  waistcoats,  and  relying, 
through  their  fear  of  the  savages,  upon  the  little 
putty-pipe  cannon   that  they  speak   of  as  "  swivels." 


150  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

These  were  ostentatiously  planted  before  their  quar- 
ters, and  in  front  of  these  again  were  massive  double 
doors,  such  as  we  still  make  of  steel  for  our  bank 
safes,  but,  when  made  of  wood,  use  only  for  our  re- 
frigerators. The  views  we  get  of  the  company's 
"servants" — which  is  to  say,  mechanics  and  laborers 
— are  all  of  trembling  varlets,  and  the  testimony  is 
full  of  hints  of  petty  sharp  practice  towards  the  red 
man,  suggestive  of  the  artful  ways  of  our  own  Hol- 
landers, who  bought  beaver-skins  by  the  weight  of 
their  feet,  and  then  pressed  down  upon  the  scales 
with  all  their  might. 

The  witnesses  had  mainly  been  at  one  time  in  the 
employ  of  the  company,  and  they  made  the  point 
against  it  that  it  imported  all  its  bread  {i.  c,  grain) 
from  England,  and  neither  encouraged  planting  nor 
cultivated  the  soil  for  itself.  But  there  were  several 
who  said  that  even  in  August  they  found  the  soil 
still  frozen  at  a  depth  of  two  and  a  half  or  three  feet. 
Not  a  man  in  the  service  was  allowed  to  trade  with 
the  natives  outside  the  forts,  or  even  to  speak  with 
them.  One  fellow  was  put  in  irons  for  going  into 
an  Indian's  tent;  and  there  was  a  witness  who  had 
"  heard  a  Governor  say  he  would  whip  a  Man  with- 
out 7>yal ;  and  that  the  severest  Punishment  is  a 
Dozen  of  Lashes."  Of  course  there  was  no  instruct- 
ing the  savages  in  either  English  or  the  Christian 
religion  ;  and  we  read  that,  though  there  were  twenty- 
eight  Europeans  in  one  factory,  "  witness  never  heard 
Sermon  or  Prayers  there,  nor  ever  heard  of  any  such 
Thing  either  before  his  Time  or  since."  Hunters 
who  offered   their  services   got   one-half  what   they 


"A    SKIN    FOR    A    SKIN  "  153 

shot  or  trapped,  and  the  captains  of  vessels  kept  in 
the  bay  were  allowed  "25  /.  per  cent^  for  all  the 
whalebone  they  got. 

One  witness  said :  "  The  method  of  trade  is  by  a 
standard  set  by  the  Governors.  They  never  lower 
it,  but  often  double  it,  so  that  where  the  Standard 
directs  i  Skin  to  be  taken  they  generally  take  Two." 
Another  said  he  "  had  been  ordered  to  shorten  the 
measure  for  Powder,  which  ought  to  be  a  Pound,  and 
that  within  these  10  Years  had  been  reduced  an 
Ounce  or  Two."  "  The  Indians  made  a  Noise  some- 
times, and  the  Company  gave  them  their  Furs  again." 
A  book-keeper  lately  in  the  service  said  that  the  com- 
pany's measures  for  powder  were  short,  and  yet  even 
such  measures  were  not  filled  above  half  full.  Profits 
thus  made  were  distinguished  as  "the  overplus  trade," 
and  signified  what  skins  were  got  more  than  were 
paid  for,  but  he  could  not  say  whether  such  gains 
went  to  the  company  or  to  the  governor.  (As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  factors  or  governors  shared  in  the 
company's  profits,  and  were  interested  in  swelling 
them  in  every  way  they  could.) 

There  was  much  news  of  how  the  French  traders 
got  the  small  furs  of  martens,  foxes,  and  cats,  by  in- 
tercepting the  Indians,  and  leaving  them  to  carry 
only  the  coarse  furs  to  the  company's  forts.  A  wit- 
ness "had  seen  the  Indians  come  down  in  fine  Frencli 
cloaths,  with  as  much  Lace  as  he  ever  saw  upon  any 
Cloaths  whatsoever.  He  believed  if  the  Compan}^ 
would  give  as  much  for  the  Furs  as  the  French,  the 
Indians  would  bring  them  down  ;"  but  the  French 
asked  only  thirty  marten -skins  for   a  gun,  whereas 


154  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

the  company's  standard  was  from  thirty-six  to  forty 
such  skins.  Then,  again,  the  company's  plan  (un- 
changed to-day)  was  to  take  the  Indian's  furs,  and 
then,  being  possessed  of  them,  to  begin  the  barter. 

This  shouldering  the  common  grief  upon  the 
French  was  not  merely  the  result  of  the  chronic 
English  antipathy  to  their  ancient  and  their  lively 
foes.  The  French  were  swarming  all  around  the 
outer  limits  of  the  company's  field,  taking  first  choice 
of  the  furs,  and  even  beginning  to  set  up  posts  of 
their  own.  Canada  was  French  soil,  and  peopled  by 
as  hardy  and  adventurous  a  class  as  inhabited  any 
part  of  America.  The  coureurs  du  bois  and  the  bois- 
brules  (half-breeds),  whose  success  afterwards  led  to 
the  formation  of  rival  companies,  had  I'jegun  a  mos- 
quito warfare,  by  canoeing  the  waters  that  led  to 
Hudson  Bay,  and  had  penetrated  looo  miles  farther 
west  than  the  English.  One  Thomas  Barnett,  a 
smith,  said  that  the  French  intercepted  the  Indians, 
forcing  them  to  trade,  "  when  they  take  what  they 
please,  giving  them  Toys  in  Exchange ;  and  fright 
them  into  Compliance  by  Tricks  of  Sleight  of  Hand; 
from  whence  the  Indians  conclude  them  to  be  Con- 
jurers; and  if  the  French  did  not  compel  the  /?idians 
to  trade,  they  would  certainly  bring  all  the  Goods  to 
the  Encrlishr 

This  must  have  seemed  to  the  direct,  practical 
English  trading  mind  a  wretched  business,  and  wor- 
thy only  of  Johnny  Crapeau,  to  worst  the  noble  Brit- 
on by  monkeyish  acts  of  conjuring.  It  stirred  the 
soul  of  one  witness,  who  said  that  the  way  to  meet  it 
was  "  by  sending  some  Encrlisli  with  a  little  Brandy." 


"A    SKIN    FOR    A    SKIN  1 55 

A  gallon  to  certain  chiefs  and  a  gallon  and  a  half 
to  others  would  certainly  induce  the  natives  to  come 
down  and  trade,  he  thousfht. 

But  while  the  testimony  of  the  Enorlish  was  valu- 
able  as  far  as  it  went,  which  was  mainly  concerning 
trade,  it  was  as  nothing  regarding  the  life  of  the  na- 
tiv^es  compared  with  that  of  one  Joseph  La  France, 
of  Missili-Mackinack  (Mackinaw),  a  traveller,  hunter, 
and  trader.  He  had  been  sent  as  a  child  to  Quebec 
to  learn  French,  and  in  later  years  had  been  from 
Lake  Nipissing  to  Lake  Champlain  and  the  Great 
Lakes,  the  Mississippi,  the  Missouri,  the  Ouinipigue 
(Winnipeg)  or  Red  River,  and  to  Hudson  Bay.  He 
told  his  tales  to  Arthur  Dobbs,  who  made  a  book  of 
them,  and  part  of  that  became  an  appendix  to  the 
committee's  report.     La  France  said : 

"That  the  high  price  on  European  Goods  discourages  the  Natives 
so  much,  that  if  it  were  not  that  they  are  under  a  Necessity  of  hav- 
ing Guns,  Powder,  Shot,  Hatchets,  and  other  Iron  Tools  for  their 
Hunting,  and  Tobacco,  Brandy,  and  some  Paint  for  Luxury,  they 
Avould  not  go  down  to  the  Factory  with  what  they  now  carry.  They 
leave  great  numbers  of  Furs  and  Skins  behind  them.  A  good  Hunt- 
er among  the  Indians  can  kill  600  Beavers  in  a  season,  and  carry 
down  but  100  "  (because  their  canoes  were  small);  "  the  rest  he  uses 
at  home,  or  hangs  them  upon  Branches  of  Trees  upon  the  Death  of 
their  Children,  as  an  Offering  to  them  ;  or  use  them  for  Bedding  and 
Coverings  :  they  sometimes  burn  off  the  Fur,  and  roast  the  Beavers, 
like  Pigs,  upon  any  Entertainments;  and  they  often  let  them  rot, 
having  no  further  Use  of  them.  The  Beavers,  he  says,  are  of  Three 
Colours — the  Brown-reddish  Colour,  the  Black,  and  the  White.  The 
Black  is  most  valued  by  the  Company,  and  in  England ;  the  White, 
though  most  valued  in  Canada,  is  blown  upon  by  the  Company's 
Factors  at  the  Bay,  they  not  allowing  so  much  for  these  as  for  the 
others ;  and  therefore  the  hidians  use  them  at  home,  or  burn  off  the 
Hair,  when  they  roast  the  Beavers,  like  Pigs,  at  an  Entertainment 
when  they  feast  together.     The  Beavers  are  delicious  Food,  but  the 


156  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

Tongue  and  Tail  the  most  (ielicious  Parts  of  the  whole.  They  mul- 
tiply very  fast,  and  if  they  can  empty  a  Pond,  and  take  the  whole 
Lodge,  they  generally  leave  a  Pair  to  breed,  so  that  they  are  fully 
stocked  again  in  Two  or  Three  Years.  The  American  Oxen,  or 
Beeves,  he  says,  have  a  large  Bunch  upon  their  backs,  which  is  by 
far  the  most  delicious  Part  of  them  for  Food,  it  being  all  as  sweet  as 
Marrow,  juicy  and  rich,  and  weighs  several  Pounds. 

"  The  Natives  are  so  discouraged  in  their  Trade  with  the  Com- 
pany that  no  Peltry  is  worth  the  Carriage ;  and  the  finest  Furs  are 
sold  for  very  little.  They  gave  but  a  Pound  of  Gunpowder  for  4 
Beavers,  a  Fathom  of  Tobacco  for  7  Beavers,  a  Pound  of  Shot  for  i, 
an  Ell  of  coarse  Cloth  for  15,  a  Blanket  for  12,  Two  Fish-hooks  or 
Three  Flints  for  i  ;  a  Gun  for  25,  a  Pistol  for  10,  a  common  Hat  with 
white  Lace,  7;  an  Ax,  4;  a  Billhook,  i  ;  a  Gallon  of  Brandy,  4;  a 
chequer'd  Shirt,  7  ;  all  of  which  are  sold  at  a  monstrous  Profit,  even 
to  2000  per  Cent.  Notwithstanding  this  discouragement,  he  com- 
puted that  there  were  brought  to  the  Factory  in  1742,  in  all,  50,000 
Beavers  and  above  9000  Martens. 

"The  smaller  Game,  got  by  Traps  or  Snares,  are  generally  the 
Employment  of  the  Women  and  Children  ;  such  as  the  Martens, 
Squirrels,  Cats,  Ermines,  &c.  The  Elks,  Stags,  Rein -Deer,  Bears, 
Tygers,  wild  Beeves,  Wolves,  Foxes,  Beavers,  Otters,  Corcajeu,  &c., 
are  the  employment  of  the  Men.  The  Indians,  when  they  kill  any 
Game  for  Food,  leave  it  where  they  kill  it,  and  send  their  wives  next 
Day  to  carry  it  home.  They  go  home  in  a  direct  Line,  never  miss- 
ing their  way,  by  observations  they  make  of  the  Cc?urse  they  take 
upon  their  going  out.  The  Trees  all  bend  towards  the  South,  and 
the  Branches  on  that  Side  are  larger  and  stronger  than  on  the  North 
Side ;  as  also  the  Moss  upon  the  Trees.  To  let  their  Wives  know 
how  to  come  at  the  killed  Game,  they  from  Place  to  Place  break  ofT 
Branches  and  lay  them  in  the  Road,  pointing  them  the  Way  they 
should  go,  and  sometimes  Moss  ;  so  that  they  never  miss  finding  it. 

"  In  Winter,  when  they  go  abroad,  which  they  must  do  in  all 
Weathers,  before  they  dress,  they  rub  themselves  all  over  with  Bears 
Greaze  or  Oil  of  Beavers,  which  does  not  freeze  ;  and  also  rub  all  the 
Fur  of  their  Beaver  Coats,  and  then  put  them  on  ;  they  have  also  a 
kind  of  Boots  or  Stockings  of  Beaver's  Skin,  well  oiled,  with  the 
Fur  inwards ;  and  above  them  they  have  an  oiled  Skin  laced  about 
thiir  Feet,  which  keeps  out  the  Cold,  and  also  Water;  and  by  this 
means  they  never  freeze,  nor  suffer  anything  by  Cold.  In  Summer, 
also,  when  they  go  naked,  they  rub  themselves  with  these  Oils  or 
Grease,  and  expose  themselves  to  the  Sun  without  being  scorched. 


"A    SKIN    FOR    A    SKIN  1 57 

their  Skins  always  being  kept  soft  and  supple  by  it;  nor  do  any 
Flies,  Bugs,  or  Musketoes,  or  any  noxious  Insect,  ever  molest  them. 
When  they  want  to  get  rid  of  it,  they  go  into  the  Water,  and  rub 
themselves  all  over  with  Mud  or  Clay,  and  let  it  dry  upon  them,  and 
then  rub  it  off ;  but  whenever  they  are  free  from  the  Oil,  the  Flies 
and  Musketoes  immediately  attack  them,  and  oblige  them  again  to 
anoint  themselves.  They  are  much  afraid  of  the  wild  Humble  Bee, 
they  going  naked  in  Summer,  that  they  avoid  them  as  much  as  they 
can.  They  use  no  Milk  from  the  time  they  are  weaned,  and  they  all 
hate  to  taste  Cheese,  having  taken  up  an  Opinion  that  it  is  made  of 
Dead  Men's  Fat.  They  lov^e  Prunes  and  Raisins,  and  will  give  a 
Beaver-skin  for  Twelve  of  them,  to  carry  to  their  Children  ;  and  also 
for  a  Trump  or  Jew's  Harp.  The  Women  have  all  fine  Voices,  but 
have  never  heard  any  Musical  Instrument.  They  are  verj^  fond  of  all 
Kinds  of  Pictures  or  Prints,  giving  a  Beaver  for  the  least  Print ;  and 
all  Toys  are  like  Jewels  to  them." 

He  reported  that  "  the  Indians  west  of  Hudson's 
Bay  live  an  erratic  Life,  and  can  have  no  Benefit  by 
tame  Fowl  or  Cattle.  They  seldom  stay  above  a 
Fortnight  in  a  Place,  unless  they  find  Plenty  of 
Game.  After  having  built  their  Hut,  they  disperse 
to  o^et  Game  for  their  Food,  and  meet  agrain  at  Nigrht 
after  having  killed  enough  to  maintain  them  for  that 
Day.  When  they  find  Scarcity  of  Game,  they  remove 
a  League  or  Two  farther;  and  thus  they  traverse 
through  woody  Countries  and  Bogs,  scarce  missing 
One  Day,  Winter  or  Summer,  fair  or  foul,  in  the 
greatest  Storms  of  Snow." 

It  has  been  often  said  that  the  great  Peace  River, 
which  rises  in  British  Columbia  and  flows  through 
a  pass  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  into  the  northern 
plains,  was  named  "the  Unchaga,"  or  Peace,  "be- 
cause "(to  quote  Captain  W.  F.  Butler)  "of  the  stub- 
born resistance  offered  by  the  all-conquering  Crees, 
which  induced  that  warlike  tribe  to  make  peace  on 


158  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

the  banks  of  the  river,  and  leave  at  rest  the  beaver-^ 
hunters  " — that  is,  the  Beaver  tribe — upon  the  river's 
banks.  There  is  a  sentence  in  La  P^rance's  story 
that  intimates  a  more  probable  and  lasting  reason 
for  the  name.  He  says  that  some  Indians  in  the 
southern  centre  of  Canada  sent  frequently  to  the 
Indians  alons:  some  river  near  the  mountains  "  with 
presents,  to  confirm  the  peace  with  them."  The 
story  is  shadowy,  of  course,  and  yet  La  France,  in 
the  same  narrative,  gave  other  information  which 
proved  to  be  correct,  and  none  which  proved  ridicu- 
lous. We  know  that  there  were  "all-conquering" 
Crees,  but  there  were  also  inferior  ones  called  the 
Swampies,  and  there  were  others  of  only  intermediate 
valor.  As  for  the  Beavers,  Captain  Butler  himself 
offers  other  proof  of  their  mettle  besides  their  "  stub- 
born resistance."  He  says  that  on  one  occasion  a 
young  Beaver  chief  shot  the  dog  of  another  brave  in 
the  Beaver  camp.  A  hundred  bows  were  instantly 
drawn,  and  ere  night  eighty  of  the  best  men  of  the 
tribe  lay  dead.  There  was  a  parley,  and  it  was  re- 
solved that  the  chief  who  slew  the  dog  should  leave 
the  tribe,  and  take  his  friends  with  him.  A  century 
later  a  Beaver  Indian,  travelling  with  a  white  man, 
heard  his  own  tongue  spoken  by  men  among  the 
Blackfeet  near  our  border.  They  were  the  Sarcis, 
descendants  of  the  exiled  band  of  Beavers.  They 
had  become  the  most  reckless  and  valorous  members 
of  the  warlike  Blackfeet  confederacy. 

La  France  said  that  the  nations  who "  go  up  the 
river  "with  presents,  to  confirm  the  peace  with  cer- 
tain Indians,  were   three  munths   in   going,  and  that 


COUREUR    DU    BOIS 


the  Indians  in  question  live  beyond  a  range  of 
mountains  beyond  the  Assiniboins  (a  plains  tribe). 
Then  he  goes  on  to  say  that  still  farther  beyond  those 
Indians  "are  nations  who  have  not  the  use  of  fire- 
arms, by  which  many  of  them  are  made  slaves  and 
sold  " — to  the  Assiniboins  and  others.  These  are 
plainly  the  Pacific  coast  Indians.  And  even  so  long 
ago  as  that  (about  1 740J,  half  a  century  before  Mac- 


l6o  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

kenzie  and  Vancouver  met  on  the  Pacific  coast,  La 
France  had  told  the  story  of  an  Indian  who  had  gone 
at  the  head  of  a  band  of  thirty  braves  and  their  fam- 
ilies to  make  war  on  the  Flatheads  "  on  the  Western 
Ocean  of  America."  They  were  from  autumn  until 
the  next  April  in  making  the  journey,  and  they  "saw 
many  Black  Fish  spouting  up  in  the  sea."  It  was  a 
case  of  what  the  Irish  call  "spoiling  for  a  fight,"  for 
they  had  to  journey  1500  miles  to  meet  "enemies" 
whom  they  never  had  seen,  and  who  were  peaceful, 
and  inhabited  more  or  less  permanent  villages.  The 
plainsmen  got  more  than  they  sought.  They  attacked 
a  village,  were  outnumbered,  and  lost  half  their  force, 
besides  havino;  several  of  their  men  wounded.  On 
the  way  back  all  except  the  man  who  told  the  story 
died  of  fatigue  and  famine. 

The  journeys  which  Indians  made  in  their  wildest 
period  were  tremendous.  Far  up  in  the  wilderness 
of  British  America  there  are  legends  of  visits  by  the 
Iroquois.  The  Blackfeet  believe  that  their  progen- 
itors roamed  as  far  south  as  Mexico  for  horses,  and 
the  Crees  of  the  plains  evinced  a  correct  knowledge 
of  the  country  that  lay  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains 
in  their  conversations  with  the  first  whites  who  traded 
with  them.  Yet  those  white  men,  the  founders  of  an 
organized  fur  trade,  clung  to  the  scene  of  their  first 
operations  for  more  than  one  hundred  years,  while 
the  bravest  of  their  more  enterprising  rivals  in  the 
Northwest  Company  only  reached  the  Pacific,  with 
the  aid  of  eight  Iroquois  braves,  120  years  after  the 
English  king  chartered  the  senior  company !  The 
French    were    the    true    Yankees    of    that    country. 


"a  skin  for  a  skin  i6i 

They  and  their  half-breeds  were  always  in  the  van  as 
explorers  and  traders,  and  as  early  as  1731  M.  Va- 
rennes  de  la  Verandrye,  licensed  by  the  Canadian 
Government  as  a  trader,  penetrated  the  West  as  far 
as  the  Rockies,  leading  Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie  to 
that  extent  by  more  than  sixty  years. 

But  to  return  to  the  first  serious  trouble  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  met.  The  investigation  of  its 
affairs  by  Parliament  produced  nothing  more  than 
the  picture  I  have  presented.  The  committee  re- 
ported that  if  the  original  charter  bred  a  monopoly, 
it  would  not  help  matters  to  give  the  same  privileges 
to  others.  As  the  questioned  legality  of  the  charter 
was  not  competently  adjudicated  upon,  they  would 
not  allow  another  company  to  invade  the  premises  of 
the  older  one. 

At  this  time  the  great  company  still  hugged  the 
shores  of  the  bay,  fearing  the  Indians,  the  half-breeds, 
and  the  French.  Their  posts  were  only  six  in  all, 
and  were  mainly  fortified  with  palisaded  enclosures, 
with  howitzers  and  swivels,  and  with  men  trained  to 
the  use  of  guns.  Moose  Fort  and  the  East  Main 
factory  were  on  either  side  of  James  Bay,  Forts  Al- 
bany, York,  and  Prince  of  Wales  followed  up  the 
west  coast,  and  Henley  was  the  southernmost  and 
most  inland  of  all,  being  on  Moose  River,  a  tributary 
of  James  Bay.  The  French  at  first  traded  beyond 
the  field  of  Hudson  Bay  operations,  and  their  castles 
were  their  canoes.  But  when  their  great  profits  and 
familiarity  with  the  trade  tempted  the  thrifty  French 
capitalists  and  enterprising  Scotch  merchants  of 
Montreal  into  the  formation  of  the  rival  Northwest 


l62  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

Trading  Company  in  1783,  fixed  trading-posts  be- 
gan to  be  established  all  over  the  Prince  Rupert's 
Land,  and  even  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains  in 
British  Columbia.  By  18 18  there  were  about  forty 
Northwest  posts  as  against  about  two  dozen  Hudson 
Bay  factories.  The  new  company  not  only  disputed 
but  ignored  the  chartered  rights  of  the  old  company, 
holding  that  the  charter  had  not  been  sanctioned  by 
Parliament,  and  was  in  every  way  unconstitutional  as 
creative  of  a  monopoly.  Their  French  partners  and 
engages  shared  this  feeling,  especially  as  the  French 
crown  had  been  first  in  the  field  with  a  royal  charter. 
Growing  bolder  and  bolder,  the  Northwest  Company 
resolved  to  drive  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  to  a 
legal  test  of  their  rights,  and  so  in  1803-4  they  es- 
tablished a  Northwest  fort  under  the  eyes  of  the  old 
company  on  the  shores  of  Hudson  Bay,  and  fitted 
out  ships  to  trade  with  the  natives  in  the  strait.  But 
the  Englishmen  did  not  accept  the  challenge;  for  the 
truth  was  they  had  their  own  doubts  of  the  strength 
of  their  charter. 

They  pursued  a  different  and  for  them  an  equally 
bold  course.  That  hard-headed  old  nobleman  the 
fifth  Earl  of  Selkirk  came  uppermost  in  the  company 
as  the  engineer  of  a  plan  of  colonization.  There  was 
plenty  of  land,  and  some  wholesale  evictions  of  High- 
landers in  Sutherlandshire,  Scotland,  had  rendered  a 
great  force  of  hardy  men  homeless.  Selkirk  saw  in 
this  situation  a  chance  to  play  a  long  but  certainly 
triumphant  game  wqth  his  rivals.  His  plan  was  to 
plant  a  colony  which  should  produce  grain  and 
horses  and  men  for  the  old  company,  saving  the  im- 


"A    SKIN    FOR    A    SKIN  "  165 

portation  of  all  three,  and  building  up  not  only  a 
nursery  for  men  to  match  the  coiirairs  du  bois,  but  a 
stronghold  and  a  seat  of  a  future  government  in  the 
Hudson  Bay  interest.  Thus  was  ushered  in  a  new 
and  important  era  in  Canadian  history.  It  was  the 
opening  of  that  part  of  Canada;  by  a  loop-hole  rather 
than  a  door,  to  be  sure. 

Lord  Selkirk's  was  a  practical  soul.  On  one  occa- 
sion in  animadverting  against  the  Northwest  Com- 
pany he  spoke  of  them  contemptuously  as  fur-traders, 
yet  he  was  the  chief  of  all  fur-traders,  and  had  been 
known  to  barter  with  an  Indian  himself  at  one  of  the 
forts  for  a  fur.  He  held  up  the  opposition  to  the 
scorn  of  the  world  as  profiting  upon  the  weakness  of 
the  Indians  by  giving  them  alcohol,  yet  he  ordered 
distilleries  set  up  in  his  colony  afterwards,  saying, 
*'  We  grant  the  trade  is  iniquitous,  but  if  we  don't 
carry  it  on  others  will ;  so  we  may  as  well  put  the 
guineas  in  our  own  pockets."  But  he  was  the  man 
of  the  moment,  if  not  for  it.  His  scheme  of  coloni- 
zation was  born  of  desperation  on  one  side  and  dis- 
tress on  the  other.  It  was  pursued  amid  terrible 
hardship,  and  against  incessant  violence.  It  was 
consummated  through  bloodshed.  The  story  is  as 
interesting  as  it  is  important.  The  facts  are  ob- 
tained mainly  from  "  Papers  relating  to  the  Red 
River  Settlement,  ordered  to  be  printed  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  July  12,  18 19."  Lord  Selkirk 
owned  40,000  of  the  ^105,000  (or  shares)  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company;  therefore,  since  25,000  were 
held  by  women  and  children,  he  held  half  of  all  that 
carried  votes.     He  got  from  the  company  a  grant  of 


1 66  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

a  large  tract  around  what  is  now  Winnipeg,  to  form 
an  agricultural  settlement  for  supplying  the  com- 
pany's posts  with  provisions.  We  have  seen  how 
little  disposed  its  officers  were  to  open  the  land  to 
settlers,  or  to  test  its  agricultural  capacities.  No  one, 
therefore,  will  wonder  that  when  this  grant  was  made 
several  members  of  the  governing  committee  re- 
signed. But  a  queer  development  of  the  moment 
was  a  strong  opposition  from  holders  of  Hudson  Bay 
stock  who  were  also  owners  in  that  company's  great 
rival,  the  Northwest  Company.  Since  the  enemy 
persisted  in  prospering  at  the  expense  of  the  old 
company,  the  moneyed  men  of  the  senior  corporation 
had  taken  stock  of  their  rivals.  These  doubly  inter- 
ested persons  were  also  in  London,  so  that  the 
Northwest  Company  was  no  longer  purely  Canadian. 
The  opponents  within  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  de- 
clared civilization  to  be  at  all  times  unfavorable  to 
the  fur  trade,  and  the  Northwest  people  argued  that 
the  colony  would  form  a  nursery  for  servants  of  the 
Bay  Company,  enabling  them  to  oppose  the  North- 
west Company  more  effectually,  as  well  as  affording 
such  facilities  for  new-comers  as  must  destroy  their 
own  monopol}'.  The  Northwest  Company  denied 
the  legality  of  the  charter  rights  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  because  Parliament  had  not  confirmed 
Charles  II.'s  charter. 

The  colonists  came,  and  were  met  by  Miles  Mc- 
Donnell, an  ex -captain  of  Canadian  volunteers,  as 
Lord  Selkirk's  agent.  The  immii^rants  landed  on  the 
shore  of  Hudson  Bay,  and  passed  a  forlorn  winter. 
They  met  some  of  the  Northwest  Company's  people 


"a  skin  for  a  skin  169 

under  Alexander  McDonnell,  a  cousin  and  brother-in- 
law  to  Miles  McDonnell.  Although  Captain  Miles 
read  the  grant  to  Selkirk  in  token  of  his  sole  right  to 
the  land,  the  settlers  were  hospitably  received  and 
well  treated  by  the  Northwest  people.  The  settlers 
reached  the  place  of  colonization  in  August,  181 2. 
This  place  is  what  was  known  as  Fort  Garry  until 
Winnipeg  was  built.  It  was  at  first  called  "  the 
Forks  of  the  Red  River,"  because  the  Assiniboin 
there  joined  the  Red.  Lord  Selkirk  outlined  his 
policy  at  the  time  in  a  letter  in  which  he  bade  Miles 
McDonnell  give  the  Northwest  people  solemn  warn- 
ing that  the  lands  were  Hudson  Bay  property,  and 
they  must  remove  from  them  ;  that  they  must  not 
fish,  and  that  if  they  did  their  nets  were  to  be 
seized,  their  buildings  were  to  be  destroyed,  and 
they  were  to  be  treated  "  as  you  w^ould  poachers  in 
England." 

The  trouble  began  at  once.  Miles  accused  Alex- 
ander of  trying  to  inveigle  colonists  away  from  him. 
He  trained  his  men  in  the  use  of  guns,  and  uniformed 
a  number  of  them.  He  forbade  the  exportation  of 
any  supplies  from  the  country,  and  when  some  North- 
west men  came  to  get  baffalo  meat  the}^  had  hung 
on  racks  in  the  open  air,  according  to  the  custom  of 
the  country,  he  sent  armed  men  to  send  the  others 
away.  He  intercepted  a  band  of  Northwest  canoe- 
men,  stationing  men  W'ith  guns  and  with  two  field- 
pieces  on  the  river ;  and  he  sent  to  a  Northwest 
post  lower  down  the  river  demanding  the  provisions 
stored  there,  which,  when  they  were  refused,  were 
taken   by  force,  the   door  being  smashed   in.      For 


170  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

this  a  Hudson  Bay  clerk  was  arrested,  and  Captain 
IMiles's  men  went  to  the  rescue.  Two  armed  forces 
met,  but  happily  slaughter  was  averted.  Miles  Mc- 
Donnell justified  his  course  on  the  ground  that  the 
colonists  were  distressed  by  need  of  food.  It  tran- 
spired at  the  time  that  one  of  his  men  while 
makino-  cartridsres  for  a  cannon  remarked  that  he 
was  making  them  "  for  those Northwest  ras- 
cals. They  have  run  too  long,  and  shall  run  no 
longer."  After  this  Captain  Miles  ordered  the  stop- 
page of  all  buffalo -hunting  on  horseback,  as  the 
practice  kept  the  buffalo  at  a  distance,  and  drove 
them  into  the  Sioux  country,  where  the  local  Indians 
dared  not  go. 

But  though  Captain  McDonnell  was  aggressive 
and  vexatious,  the  Northwest  Company's  people,  who 
had  begun  the  mischief,  even  in  London,  were  not 
now  passive.  They  relied  on  setting  the  half-breeds 
and  Indians  against  the  colonists.  They  urged  that 
the  colonists  had  stolen  Indian  real  estate  in  settling 
on  the  land,  and  that  in  time  every  Indian  would  starve 
as  a  consequence.  At  the  forty-fifth  annual  meeting 
of  the  Northwest  Company's  officers,  August,  1814^ 
Alexander  McDonnell  said,  "  Nothing  but  the  com- 
plete downfall  of  the  colony  will  satisfy  some,  by  fair 
or  foul  means — a  most  desirable  object,  if  it  can  be 
accomplished ;  so  here  is  at  it  with  all  my  heart  and 
energy."  In  October,  18 14,  Captain  McDonnell  or- 
dered the  Northwest  Company  to  remove  from  the 
territory  within  six  months. 

The  Indians,  first  and  last,  were  the  friends  of 
the  colonists.      They  were  befriended  by  the  whites, 


A    SKIN    FOR    A    SKIN 


171 


and  in  turn  they 
gave  them  suc- 
cor when  famine 
fell  upon  them. 
Many  of  Cap- 
tain Miles  Mc- 
Donnell's orders 
were  in  their  in- 
terest, and  they 
knew  it.  Ka- 
t  a  w  a  b  e  t  a  y,  a 
chief,  was  tempt- 
ed with  a  big 
prize  to  destroy 
the  settlement. 
He  refused.  On 
the  opening  of 
navigation  in 
18 1 5  chiefs  were 
bidden  from  the 
country  around 
to  visit  the 
Northwest  fac- 
tors, and  were  by 
them  asked  to 
destroy  the  col- 
ony.     Not  only 

did  they  decline,  but  they  hastened  to  Captain  Miles 
McDonnell  to  acquaint  him  with  the  plot.  Duncan 
Cameron  now  appears  foremost  among  the  North- 
west Company's  agents,  being  in  charge  of  that  com- 
pany's post  on  the  Red  River,  in  the  Selkirk  grant. 


THE   INDIAN    HUNTER    OF    175O 


172  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

He  told  the  chiefs  that  if  they  took  the  part  of  the 
colonists  "their  camp-fires  should  be  totally  extin- 
guished." When  Cameron  caught  one  of  his  own 
servants  doing  a  trifling  service  for  Captain  Miles 
McDonnell,  he  sent  him  upon  a  journey  for  which 
every  engage  of  the  Northwest  Company  bound  him- 
self liable  in  joining  the  company;  that  was  to  make 
the  trip  to  Mo  ntreal,  a  voyage  held  in  terrorem  over 
every  servant  of  the  corporation.  More  than  that, 
he  confiscated  four  horses  and  a  wagon  belonging 
to  this  man,  and  charged  him  on  the  company's  books 
with  the  sum  of  800  livres  for  an  Indian  squaw,  whom 
the  man  had  been  told  he  was  to  have  as  his  slave 
for  a  present. 

But  thouQ^h  the  Indians  held  aloof  from  the  o^reat 
and  cruel  conspiracy,  the  half-breeds  readily  joined 
in  it.  They  treated  Captain  McDonnell's  orders 
with  contempt,  and  arrested  one  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
men  as  a  spy  upon  their  hunting  with  horses.  There 
lived  along  the  Red  River,  near  the  colony,  about 
thirty  Canadians  and  seventy  half-breeds,  born  of 
Indian  squaws  and  the  servants  or  ofificers  of  the 
Northwest  Company.  One -quarter  of  the  number 
of  "  breeds "  could  read  and  write,  and  were  fit  to 
serve  as  clerks ;  the  rest  were  literally  half  savage, 
and  were  employed  as  hunters,  canoe-men,  "packers  " 
(freighters),  and  guides.  They  were  naturally  inclined 
to  side  with  the  Northwest  Company,  and  in  time 
that  corporation  sowed  dissension  among  the  colo- 
nists themselves,  picturing  to  them  exaggerated  dan- 
ger from  the  Indians,  and  offering  them  free  pas- 
sage to  Canada.     They  j^aid  at  least  one  of  the  lead- 


INDIAN    HUNTER    HANGING    DEER   OUT    OF   THE    REACH    OF   WOLVES 


"a  skin  for  a  skin"  175 

ing  colonists  ;f^ioo  for  furthering  discontent  in  the 
settlement,  and  four  deserters  from  the  colony  stole 
all  the  Hudson  Bay  field-pieces,  iron  swivels,  and  the 
howitzer.  There  was  constant  irritation  and  friction 
between  the  factions.  In  an  affray  far  up  at  Isle-a-la- 
Crosse  a  man  was  killed  on  either  side.  Half-breeds 
came  past  the  colony  singing  war-songs,  and  notices 
were  posted  around  Fort  Garry  reading,  "  Peace  with 
all  the  world  except  in  Red  River."  The  Northwest 
people  demanded  the  surrender  of  Captain  McDon- 
nell that  he  might  be  tried  on  their  charges,  and  on 
June  II,  1815,  a  band  of  men  fired  on  the  colonial 
buildings.  The  captain  afterwards  surrendered  him- 
self, and  the  remnant  of  the  colony,  thirteen  familiesy 
went  to  the  head  of  Lake  Winnipeg.  The  half, 
breeds  burned  the  buildings,  and  divided  the  horses 
and  effects. 

But  in  the  autumn  all  came  back  with  Colin  Rob- 
ertson, of  the  Bay  Company,  and  twenty  clerks  and 
servants.  These  were  joined  by  Governor  Robert 
Semple,  who  brought  160  settlers  from  Scotland. 
Semple  was  a  man  of  consequence  at  home,  a  great 
traveller,  and  the  author  of  a  book  on  travels  in 
Spain.*  But  he  came  in  no  conciliatory  mood,  and 
the  foment  was  kept  up.     The  Northwest  Company 

*  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Matthew  Semple,  of  Philadelphia,  a  grand- 
nephew  of  the  murdered  Governor,  for  further  facts  about  that  hero. 
He  led  a  life  of  travel  and  adventure,  spiced  with  almost  romantic 
happenings.  He  wrote  ten  books:  records  of  travel  and  one  novel. 
His  parents  were  passengers  on  an  English  vessel  which  was  capt- 
ured by  the  Americans  in  1776,  and  brought  to  Boston,  Mass.,  where 
he  was  born  on  February  26,  1777.  He  was  therefore  only  39  years 
of  age  when  he  was  slain.  His  portrait,  now  in  Philadelphia,  shows 
him  to  have  been  a  man  of  striking  and  handsome  appearance. 


176  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

tried  to  starve  the  colonists,  and  Governor  Semple 
destroyed  the  enemy's  fort  below  Fort  Garry.  Then 
came  the  end — a  decisive  battle  and  massacre. 

Sixty -five  men  on  horses,  and  with  some  carts, 
were  sent  by  Alexander  McDonnell,  of  the  North- 
west Company,  up  the  river  towards  the  colony. 
They  were  led  by  Cuthbert  Grant,  and  included  six 
Canadians,  four  Indians,  and  fifty -four  half-breeds. 
It  was  afterwards  said  they  went  on  innocent  busi- 
ness, but  every  man  was  armed,  and  the  "  breeds  " 
were  naked,  and  painted  all  over  to  look  like  Ind- 
ians. They  got  their  paint  of  the  Northwest  offi- 
cers. Moreover,  there  had  been  rumors  that  the  col- 
onists were  to  be  driven  away,  and  that  "  the  land 
was  to  be  drenched  with  blood."  It  was  on  June  19, 
18 1 6,  that  runners  notified  the  colony  that  the  others 
were  coming.  Semple  was  at  Fort  Douglas,  near 
Fort  Garry.  When  apprised  of  the  close  approach 
of  his  assailants,  the  Governor  seems  not  to  have  ap- 
preciated his  danger,  for  he  said,  "  We  must  go  and 
meet  those  people ;  let  twenty  men  follow  me."  He 
put  on  his  cocked  hat  and  sash,  his  pistols,  and  shoul- 
dered his  double-barrelled  fowling-piece.  The  others 
carried  a  wretched  lot  of  guns — some  with  the  locks 
gone,  and  many  that  were  useless.  It  was  marshy 
ground,  and  they  straggled  on  in  loose  order.  They 
met  an  old  soldier  who  had  served  in  the  army  at 
home,  and  who  said  the  enemy  was  very  numerous, 
and  that  the  Governor  had  better  brins:  alonsf  his  two 
field-pieces. 

"  No,  no,"  said  the  Governor ;  "  there  is  no  occasion. 
I  am  only  going  to  speak  to  them." 


A    SKIN    FOR    A    SKIN 


177 


Nevertheless,  after  a  moment's  reflection,  he  did 
send  back  for  one  of  the  great  guns,  saying  it  was 
well  to  have  it  in  case  of  need.  They  halted  a  short 
time  for  the  cannon,  and  then  perceived  the  North- 
west party  pressing  towards  them  on  their  horses. 
By  a  common  impulse  the  Governor  and  his  follow- 
ers began  a  retreat,  walking  backwards,  and  at  the 
same  time  spreading  out  a  single  line  to  present  a 
longer  front.  The  enemy  continued  to  advance  at  a 
hand-gallop.  From  out  among  them  rode  a  Cana- 
dian named  Boucher,  the  rest  forming  a  half-moon 
behind  him.  Waving  his  hand  in  an  insolent  way 
to  the  Governor,  Boucher  called  out, "  What  do  you 
want  ?" 


MAKING    THE    SNOW-SHOE 


178  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

"  What  do yoii  want?"  said  Governor  Semple. 

"  We  want  our  fort,"  said  Boucher,  meaning  the 
fort  Semple  had  destroyed. 

"  Go  to  your  fort,"  said  the  Governor. 

"Why  did  you  destroy  our  fort,  you  rascal?"  Bou- 
cher demanded. 

"Scoundrel,  do  you  tell  me  so?"  the  Governor  re- 
plied, and  ordered  the  man's  arrest. 

Some  say  he  caught  at  Boucher's  gun.  But  Bou- 
cher slipped  off  his  horse,  and  on  the  instant  a  gun 
was  fired,  and  a  Hudson  Bay  clerk  fell  dead.  An- 
other shot  wounded  Governor  Semple,  and  he  called 
to  his  followers, 

"  Do  what  you  can  to  take  care  of  yourselves." 

Then  there  was  a  volley  from  the  Northwest  force, 
and  with  the  clearing  of  the  smoke  it  looked  as 
though  all  the  Governor's  party  were  killed  or  wound- 
ed. Instead  of  taking  care  of  themselves,  they  had 
rallied  around  their  wounded  leader.  Captain  Rog- 
ers, of  the  Governor's  party,  who  had  fallen,  rose  to 
his  feet,  and  ran  towards  the  enemy  crying  for  mercy 
in  English  and  broken  French,  when  Thomas  McKay, 
a  "breed  "and  Northwest  clerk,  shot  him  through  the 
head,  another  cutting  his  body  open  with  a  knife. 

Cuthbert  Grant  (who,  it  was  charged,  had  shot 
Governor  Semple)  now  went  to  the  Governor,  while 
the  others  despatched  the  wounded. 

Semple  said,  "Are  you  not  Mr.  Grant?" 

"  Yes,"  said  the  other. 

"  I  am  not  mortally  wounded,"  said  the  Governor, 
"  and  if  you  could  get  me  conveyed  to  the  fort,  I 
think  I  should  live." 


"a  skin  for  a  skin  179 

But  when  Grant  left  his  side  an  Indian  named 
Ma-chi-ca-taou  shot  him,  some  say  through  the  breast, 
and  some  have  it  that  he  put  a  pistol  to  the  Govern- 
or's head.  Grant  could  not  stop  the  savages.  The 
bloodshed  had  crazed  them.  They  slaughtered  all 
the  wounded,  and,  worse  yet,  they  terribly  maltreated 
the  bodies.  Twenty-two  Hudson  Bay  men  were  killed, 
and  one  on  the  other  side  was  wounded. 

There  is  a  story  that  Alexander  McDonnell  shout- 
ed for  joy  when  he  heard  the  news  of  the  massacre. 
One  witness,  who  did  not  hear  him  shout,  reports 
that  he  exclaimed  to  his  friends :  "  Sacre  noin  de 
Dien!     Bonnes  nouvelles ;  vinzt-deux  Ancrlais  lues T 

( !     Good  news;  twenty-two  English  slain!)     It 

was  afterwards  alleged  that  the  slaughter  was  ap- 
proved by  every  ofificer  of  the  Northwest  Company 
whose  comments  were  recorded. 

It  is  a  saying  up  in  that  country  that  twenty-six 
out  of  the  sixty-five  in  the  attacking  party  died  vio- 
lent deaths.  The  record  is  only  valuable  as  indicat- 
ing the  nature  and  perils  of  the  lives  the  hunters  and 
half-breeds  led.  First,  a  Frenchman  dropped  dead 
while  crossing  the  ice  on  the  river,  his  son  was 
stabbed  by  a  comrade,  his  wife  was  shot,  and  his 
children  were  burned  ;  "  Big  Head,"  his  brother,  was 
shot  by  an  Indian ;  Coutonohais  dropped  dead  at  a 
dance ;  Battosh  was  mysteriously  shot ;  Lavigne  was 
drowned ;  Fraser  was  run  through  the  body  by  a 
Frenchman  in  Paris;  Baptiste  Moralle,  while  drunk, 
was  thrown  into  a  fire  by  inebriated  companions  and 
burned  to  death;  another  died  drunk  on  a  roadway; 
another  was  wounded  by  the  bursting  of  his  gun ; 


l80  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

small-pox  took  the  eleventh;  Duplicis  was  empaled 
upon  a  hay-fork,  on  which  he  jumped  from  a  hay- 
stack ;  Parisien  was  shot,  by  a  person  unknown,  in  a 
buffalo-hunt;  another  lost  his  arm  by  carelessness; 
Gardapie,  "  the  brave,"  was  scalped  and  shot  by  the 
Sioux ;  so  was  Vallee ;  Ka-te-tee-goose  was  scalped 
and  cut  in  pieces  by  the  Gros-Ventres ;  Pe-me-can- 
toss  was  thrown  in  a  hole  by  his  people ;  and  another 
Indian  and  his  wife  and  children  were  killed  by 
lightning.  Yet  another  was  gored  to  death  by  a 
buffalo.  The  rest  of  the  twenty-six  died  by  being 
frozen,  by  drowning,  by  drunkenness,  or  by  shameful 
disease. 

It  is  when  things  are  at  their  worst  that  they  be- 
gin to  mend,  says  a  silly  old  proverb;  but  when  his- 
tory is  studied  these  desperate  situations  often  seem 
part  of  the  mending,  not  of  themselves,  but  of  the 
broken  cause  of  progress.  There  was  a  little  halt 
here  in  Canada,  as  we  shall  see,  but  the  seed  of  settle- 
ment had  been  planted,  and  thenceforth  continued  to 
grow.  Lord  Selkirk  came  with  all  speed,  reaching 
Canada  in  1817.  It  was  now  an  English  colony, 
and  when  he  asked  for  a  body-guard,  the  Government 
gave  him  two  sergeants  and  twelve  soldiers  of  the 
Regiment  de  Meuron.  He  made  these  the  nucleus 
of  a  considerable  force  of  Swiss  and  Germans  who 
had  formerly  served  in  that  regiment,  and  he  pursued 
a  triumphal  progress  to  what  he  called  his  territory 
of  Assiniboin,  capturing  all  the  Northwest  Company's 
forts  on  the  route,  imprisoning  the  officers,  and  send- 
ing to  jail  in  Canada  all  the  accessaries  to  the  mas- 
sacre, on  charges  of  arson,  murder,  robbery,  and  "  high 


A    HUDSON    BAY   MAN   (qUARTER-BREED) 

misdemeanors."  Such  was  the  prejudice  against  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  and  the  regard  for  the  home 
corporation  that  nearly  all  were  acquitted,  and  suits 
for  very  heavy  damages  were  lodged  against  him. 

Selkirk  souorht  to  treat  with  the  Indians  for  his 
land,  which  they  said  belonged  to  the  Chippeways 
and  the  Crees.  Five  chiefs  were  found  whose  right 
to  treat  was  acknowledged  by  all.  On  July  18,  181 7, 
they  deeded  the  territory  to  the  King, "  for  the  bene- 
fit of  Lord  Selkirk,"  giving  him  a  strip  two  miles 
wide   on    either  side   of  the    Red    River  from   Lake 


1 82  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

Winnipeg  to  Red  Lake,  north  of  the  United  States 
boundary,  and  along  the  Assiniboin  from  Fort  Garry 
to  the  Muskrat  River,  as  well  as  within  two  circles 
of  six  miles  radius  around  Fort  Garry  and  Pembina, 
now  in  Dakota.  Indians  do  not  know  what  miles 
are;  they  measure  distance  by  the  movement  of  the 
sun  while  on  a  journey.  They  determined  two  miles 
in  this  case  to  be  "as  far  as  you  can  see  daylight 
under  a  horses  belly  on  the  level  prairie."  On 
account  of  Selkirk's  liberality  they  dubbed  him  "  the 
silver  chief."  He  agreed  to  give  them  for  the  land 
200  pounds  of  tobacco  a  year.  He  named  his  settle- 
ment Kildonan,  after  that  place  in  Helmsdale,  Suther- 
landshire,  Scotland.  He  died  in  1821,  and  in  1836 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company  bought  the  land  back 
from  his  heirs  for  ^'84,000.  The  Swiss  and  Ger- 
mans of  his  regiment  remained,  and  many  retired 
servants  of  the  company  bought  and  settled  there, 
forming  the  aristocracy  of  the  place — a  queer  aris- 
tocracy to  our  minds,  for  many  of  the  women  were 
Indian  squaws,  and  the  children  were  "  breeds." 

Through  the  perseverance  and  tact  of  the  Right 
Hon.  Edward  Ellice,  to  whom  the  Government  had 
appealed,  all  differences  between  the  two  great  fur- 
trading  companies  were  adjusted,  and  in  182 1  a 
coalition  was  formed.  At  Ellice's  suggestion  the 
giant  combination  then  got  from  Parliament  exclu- 
sive privileges  beyond  the  waters  that  flow  into 
Hudson  Bay,  over  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  to  the 
Pacific,  for  a  term  of  twenty  years.  These  extra 
privileges  were  surrendered  in  1838,  and  were  re- 
newed for  twenty-one  years  longer,  to  be  rcoked,  so 


"a  skin  for  a. skin  183 

far  as  British  Columbia  (then  New  Caledonia)  was 
concerned,  in  1858.  That  territory  then  became  a 
crown  colony,  and  it  and  Vancouver  Island,  which 
had  taken  on  a  colonial  character  at  the  time  of  the 
California  gold  fever  (1849),  were  united  in  1866.  The 
extra  privileges  of  the  fur-traders  were  therefore  not 
again  renewed.  In  1868,  after  the  establishment  of 
the  Canadian  union,  whatever  presumptive  rights 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company  got  under  Charles  II.'s 
charter  were  vacated  in  consideration  of  a  payment 
by  Canada  of  $1,500,000  cash,  one -twentieth  of  all 
surveyed  lands  within  the  fertile  belt,  and  50,000 
acres  surrounding  the  company's  posts.  It  is  es- 
timated that  the  land  grant  amounts  to  7,000,000 
of  acres,  worth  $20,000,000,  exclusive  of  all  town 
,sites. 

Thus  we  reach  the  present  condition  of  the  com- 
pan}',  more  than  220  years  old,  maintaining  200  cen- 
tral posts  and  unnumbered  dependent  ones,  and  trad- 
ing in  Labrador  on  the  Atlantic;  at  Massett,  on  Queen 
Charlotte  Island,  in  the  Pacific;  and  deep  within  the 
Arctic  Circle  in  the  north.  The  company  was  new- ' 
ly  capitalized  not  long  ago  with  100,000  shares  at 
^20  ($10,000,000),  but,  in  addition  to  its  dividends,  it 
has  paid  back  £']  in  every  ^20,  reducing  its  capital 
to  ^1,300,000.  The  stock,  however,  is  quoted  at  its 
original  value.  The  supreme  control  of  the  company 
is  vested  in  a  governor,  deputy  governor,  and  five 
directors,  elected  by  the  stockholders  in  London. 
They  delegate  their  powers  to  an  executive  resident 
in  this  country,  who  was  until  lately  called  the  "  Gov- 
ernor of  Rupert's  Land,"  but  now  is  styled  the  chief 


1 84  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

commissioner,  and  is  in  absolute  charge  of  the  com- 
pany and  all  its  operations.  His  term  of  office  is  un- 
limited. The  present  head  of  the  corporation,  or 
governor,  is  Sir  Donald  A.  Smith,  one  of  the  fore- 
most  spirits  in  Canada,  who  worked  his  way  up 
from  a  clerkship  in  the  company.  The  business  of 
the  company  is  managed  on  the  outfit  system,  the 
most  old-fogyish,  yet  by  its  officers  declared  to  be 
the  most  perfect,  plan  in  use  by  any  corporation. 
The  method  is  to  charge  against  each  post  all  the 
supplies  that  are  sent  to  it  between  June  ist  and 
June  ist  each  year,  and  then  to  set  against  this  the 
product  of  each  post  in  furs  and  in  cash  received.  It 
used  to  take  seven  years  to  arrive  at  the  figures  for  a 
given  year,  but,  owing  to  improved  means  of  trans- 
portation, this  is  now  done  in  two  years. 

Almost  wherever  you  go  in  the  newly  settled  parts 
of  the  Hudson  Bay  territory  3^ou  find  at  least  one 
free-trader's  shop  set  up  in  rivalry  with  the  old  com- 
pany's post.  These  are  sometimes  mere  storehouses 
for  the  furs,  and  sometimes  they  look  like,  and  are 
partly,  general  country  stores.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  this  rivalry  is  very  detrimental  to  the  fur 
trade  from  the  stand-point  of  the  future.  The  great 
company  can  afford  to  miss  a  dividend,  and  can  lose 
at  some  points  while  gaining  at  others,  but  the  free- 
traders must  profit  in  every  district.  The  conse- 
quence is  such  a  reckless  destruction  of  game  that 
the  plan  adopted  by  us  for  our  seal-fisheries — the 
leasehold  system — is  envied  and  advocated  in  Canada. 
A  greater  proportion  of  trapping  and  an  utter  un- 
concern for  the  destruction  of  the  "•ame  at  all  asres 


"a    skin  for  a  skin  187 

are  now  ravaging  the  wilderness.  Many  districts 
return  as  many  furs  as  they  ever  yielded,  but  the 
quantity  is  kept  up  at  fearful  cost  by  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  game.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fortified 
wall  of  posts  that  opposed  the  development  of  Can- 
ada, and  sent  the  surplus  population  of  Europe  to  the 
United  States,  is  rid  of  its  palisades  and  field-pieces, 
and  the  main  strongholds  of  the  ancient  company 
and  its  rivals  have  become  cities.  The  old  fort  on 
Vancouver  Island  is  now  Victoria ;  Fort  Edmonton 
is  the  seat  of  law  and  commerce  in  the  Peace  River 
region ;  old  Fort  William  has  seen  Port  Arthur  rise 
by  its  side ;  Fort  Garry  is  Winnipeg ;  Calgary,  the 
chief  city  of  Alberta,  is  on  the  site  of  another  fort; 
and  Sault  Ste.  Marie  was  once  a  Northwest  post. 

But  civilization  is  still  so  far  off  from  most  of  the 
"  factories,"  as  the  company's  posts  are  called,  that 
the  day  when  they  shall  become  cities  is  in  no  man's 
thought  or  ken.  And  the  communication  between 
the  centres  and  outposts  is,  like  the  life  of  the  traders, 
more  nearly  like  what  it  was  in  the  old,  old  days  than 
most  of  my  readers  would  imagine.  My  Indian 
guides  were  battling  with  their  paddles  against  the 
mad  current  of  the  Nipigon,  above  Lake  Superior, 
one  day  last  summer,  and  I  was  only  a  few  hours 
away  from  Factor  Flanagan's  post  near  the  great 
lake,  when  we  came  to  a  portage,  and  might  have 
imagined  from  what  we  saw  that  time  had  pushed  the 
hands  back  on  the  dial  of  eternity  at  least  a  century. 

Some  rapids  in  the  river  had  to  be  avoided  b}'  the 
brigade  that  was  being  sent  with  supplies  to  a  post 
far  north  at  the  head  of  Lake  Nipigon.    A  cumbrous. 


l88  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

big-timbered  little  schooner,  like  a  surf-boat  with  a 
sail,  and  a  square-cut  bateau  had  brought  the  men 
and  goods  to  the  "  carry."  The  men  were  half-breeds 
as  of  old,  and  had  brought  along  their  women  and 
children  to  inhabit  a  camp  of  smoky  tents  that  we 
espied  on  a  bluff  close  by ;  a  typical  camp,  with  the 
blankets  hung  on  the  bushes,  the  slatternly  women 
and  half-naked  children  squatting  or  running  about, 
and  smudije  fires  smokinsj  between  the  tents  to  drive 
off  mosquitoes  and  flies.  The  men  were  in  groups 
below  on  the  trail,  at  the  water-side  end  of  which  were 
the  boats'  cargoes  of  shingles  and  flour  and  bacon 
and  shot  and  powder  in  kegs,  wrapped,  two  at  a  time, 
in  rawhide.  They  were  dark-skinned,  short,  spare 
men,  without  a  surplus  pound  of  flesh  in  the  crew, 
and  with  longish  coarse  black  hair  and  straggling 
beards.  Each  man  carried  a  tump-line,  or  long  stout 
strap,  which  he  tied  in  such  a  way  around  what  he 
meant  to  carry  that  a  broad  part  of  the  strap  fitted 
over  the  crown  of  his  head.  Thus  they  "  packed  " 
the  goods  over  the  portage,  their  heads  sustaining 
the  loads,  and  their  backs  merely  steadying  them. 
When  one  had  thrown  his  burden  into  place,  he 
trotted  off  up  the  trail  with  springing  feet,  though 
the  freight  was  packed  so  that  loo  pounds  should 
form  a  load.  For  bravado  one  carried  200  pounds, 
and  then  all  the  others  tried  to  pack  as  much,  and 
most  succeeded.  All  agreed  that  one,  the  smallest 
and  least  muscular-looking  one  among  them,  could 
pack  400  pounds. 

As  the  men  slathered  around  their  "smudee"  to 
talk  with  my  party,  it  was  seen  that  of  all   the  parts 


"a  skin  for  a  skin  189 

of  the  picturesque  costume  of  the  voyageur  or  bois- 
bride  of  old — the  capote,  the  striped  shirt,  the  pipe- 
tomahawk,  plumed  hat,  gay  leggins,  belt,  and  mocca- 
sins— only  the  red  worsted  belt  and  the  moccasins 
have  been  retained.  These  men  could  recall  the 
day  when  they  had  tallow  and  corn  meal  for  rations, 
got  no  tents,  and  were  obliged  to  carry  200  pounds, 
lifting  one  package,  and  then  throwing  a  second  one 
atop  of  it  without  assistance.  Now  they  carry  only 
100  pounds  at  a  time,  and  have  tents  and  good  food 
given  to  them. 

We  will  not  follow  them,  nor  meet,  as  they  did,  the 
York  boat  coming  down  from  the  north  with  last 
winter's  furs.  Instead,  I  will  endeavor  to  lift  the  cur- 
tain from  before  the  great  fur  country  beyond  them, 
to  give  a  glimpse  of  the  habits  and  conditions  that 
prevail  throughout  a  majestic  territory  where  the 
rivers  and  lakes  are  the  only  roads,  and  canoes  and 
dog-sleds  are  the  only  vehicles. 


YII 

"TALKING    MUSQUASH" 

Concluding  the  sketch  of  the  history  and  work  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 

THE  most  sensational  bit  of  "musquash  talk" 
in  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  among 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company's  employe's  was  started 
the  other  day,  when  Sir  Donald  A.  Smith,  the 
governor  of  the  great  trading  company,  sent  a 
type -written  letter  to  Winnipeg.  If  a  Cree  squaw 
had  gone  to  the  trading -shop  at  Moose  Factory 
and  asked  for  a  bustle  and  a  box  of  face -powder 
in  exchange  for  a  beaver -skin,  the  suggestion  of 
changing  conditions  in  the  fur  trade  would  have 
been  trifling  compared  with  the  sense  of  instability 
to  which  this  appearance  of  machine- writing  gave 
rise.  The  reader  may  imagine  for  himself  what  a 
wrench  civilization  would  have  sfotten  if  the  world 
had  laid  down  its  goose-quills  and  taken  up  the  type- 
writer all  in  one  day.  And  that  is  precisely  what 
Sir  Donald  Smith  had  done.  The  quill  that  had 
served  to  convey  the  orders  of  Alexander  Mackenzie 
had  satisfied  Sir  George  Simpson  ;  and,  in  our  own 
time,  while  men  like  Lord  Iddesleigh,  Lord  Kimber- 
ley,  and  Mr.  Goschen  sat  around  the  candle-lighted 
table  in  the  board-room  of  the  company  in  London, 
quill  pens  were  the  only  ones  at  hand.  But  Sir  Don- 
ald's letter  was  not  only  the  product  of  a  machine;  it 


"talking  musquash"  191 

contained  instructions  for  the  use  of  the  type-writer  in 
the  offices  at  Winnipeg,  and  there  was  in  the  letter  a 
protest  against  illegible  manual  chirography  such  as 
had  been  received  from  many  factories  in  the  wilder- 
ness. Talking  business  in  the  fur  trade  has  always 
been  called  "  talking  musquash  "  (musk-rat),  and  after 
that  letter  came  the  turn  taken  by  that  form  of  talk 
suggested  a  general  fear  that  from  the  Arctic  to  our 
border  and  from  Labrador  to  Queen  Charlotte's  Isl- 
ands the  canvassers  for  competing  machines  will  be 
"  racing  "  in  all  the  posts,  each  to  prove  that  his  in- 
strument can  pound  out  more  words  in  a  minute 
than  any  other — in  those  posts  where  life  has  hitherto 
been  taken  so  gently  that  when  one  day  a  factor 
heard  that  the  battle  of  Waterloo  had  been  fought 
and  won  by  the  English,  he  deliberately  loaded  the 
best  trade  gun  in  the  storehouse  and  went  out  and 
fired  it  into  the  pulseless  woods,  although  it  was  two 
years  after  the  battle,  and  the  disquieted  Old  World 
had  long  known  the  greater  news  that  Napoleon  was 
caged  in  St.  Helena.  The  only  reassuring  note  in 
the  "musquash  talk"  to-day  is  sounded  when  the 
subject  of  candles  is  reached.  The  Governor  and 
committee  in  London  still  pursue  their  deliberations 
by  candlelight. 

But  rebellion  against  their  fate  is  idle,  and  it  is  of 
no  avail  for  the  old  factors  to  make  the  point  that 
Sir  Donald  found  no  Q;reater  trouble  in  readino^  their 
writing  than  they  encountered  when  one  of  his  mis- 
sives had  to  be  deciphered  by  them.  The  truth  is 
that  the  tide  of  immigration  which  their  ancient  mo- 
nopoly  first  shunted  into  the  United  States  is  now 


192  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

sweeping  over  their  vast  territory,  and  altering  more 
than  its  face.  Not  only  are  the  factors  aware  that 
the  new  rule  confining  them  to  share  in  the  profits 
of  the  fur  trade  leaves  to  the  mere  stockholders  far 
greater  returns  from  land  sales  and  storekeeping,  but 
a  great  many  of  them  now  find  village  life  around 
their  old  forts,  and  railroads  close  at  hand,  and  Law 
setting  up  its  officers  at  their  doors,  so  that  in  a 
great  part  of  the  territory  the  romance  of  the  old 
life,  and  their  authority  as  well,  has  fled. 

Less  than  four  years  ago  I  had  passed  by  Ou'Ap 
pelle  without  visiting  it,  but  last  summer  I  resolved 
not  to  make  the  mistake  aQ;ain,  for  it  was  the  last 
stockaded  fort  that  could  be  studied  without  a  tire- 
some and  costly  journey  into  the  far  north.  It  is  on 
the  Fishing  Lakes,  just  beyond  Manitoba.  But  on 
my  way  a  Hudson  Bay  officer  told  me  that  they  had 
just  taken  down  the  stockade  in  the  spring,  and  that 
he  did  not  know  of  a  remaining  "  palisadoe  "  in  all 
the  company's  system  except  one,  which,  curiously 
enough,  had  just  been  ordered  to  be  put  up  around 
Fort  Hazleton,  on  the  Skeena  River,  in  northern 
British  Columbia,  where  some  turbulent  Indians 
have  been  very  troublesome,  and  where  whatever 
civilization  there  may  be  in  Saturn  seems  nearer 
than  our  own.  This  one  example  of  the  survival  of 
original  conditions  is  far  more  eloquent  of  their  en- 
durance than  the  thoughtless  reader  would  imagine. 
It  is  true  that  there  has  come  a  tremendous  change 
in  the  status  and  spirit  of  the  company.  It  is  true 
that  its  officers  are  but  newlv  bendinsr  to  external 
authority,  and    that   settlers    have    poured    into   the 


TALKING  MUSQUASH 


"TALKING    MUSQUASH  I95 

south  with  such  demands  for  food,  clothes,  tools,  and 
weapons  as  to  create  within  the  old  corporation  one 
of  the  largest  of  shopkeeping  companies.  Yet  to- 
day, as  two  centuries  ago,  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
remains  the  greatest  fur  -  trading  association  that 
exists. 

The  zone  in  which  Fort  Hazleton  is  situated 
reaches  from  ocean  to  ocean  without  suffering  inva- 
sion  by  settlers,  and  far  above  it  to  the  Arctic  Sea  is 
a  grand  belt  wherein  time  has  made  no  impress 
since  the  first  factory  was  put  up  there.  There  and 
around  it  is  a  region,  nearly  two-thirds  the  size  of 
the  United  States,  which  is  as  if  our  country  were 
meagrely  dotted  with  tiny  villages  at  an  average  dis- 
tance of  five  days  apart,  with  no  other  means  of  com- 
munication than  canoe  or  dog  train,  and  with  not 
above  a  thousand  white  men  in  it,  and  not  as  many 
pure-blooded  white  women  as  you  will  find  registered 
at  a  first-class  New  York  hotel  on  an  ordinary  day. 
The  company  employs  between  fifteen  hundred  and 
two  thousand  white  men,  and  I  am  assuming  that 
half  of  them  are  in  the  fur  country. 

We  know  that  for  nearly  a  century  the  company 
clung  to  the  shores  of  Hudson  Bay.  It  will  be  in- 
teresting to  peep  into  one  of  its  forts  as  they  were  at 
that  time ;  it  will  be  amazing  to  see  what  a  country 
that  bay-shore  territory  was  and  is.  There  and  over 
a  vast  territory  three  seasons  come  in  four  months — 
spring  in  June,  summer  in  July  and  August,  and  au- 
tumn in  September.  During  the  long  winter  the 
earth  is  blanketed  deep  in  snow,  and  the  water  is 
locked  beneath  ice.     Geese,  ducks,  and  smaller  birds 


196  ON  Canada's  frontier 

abound  as  probably  they  are  not  seen  elsewhere  in 
America,  but  they  either  give  place  to  or  share  the 
summer  with  mosquitoes,  black-flies,  and  "  bull-dogs  " 
{tabamis)  without  number,  rest,  or  mercy.  For  the 
land  around  Hudson  Bay  is  a  vast  level  marsh,  so 
wet  that  York  Fort  was  built  on  piles,  with  elevated 
platforms  around  the  buildings  for  the  men  to  walk 
upon.  Infrequent  bunches  of  small  pines  and  a  litter 
of  stunted  sw^amp- willows  dot  the  level  waste,  the 
only  considerable  timber  being  found  upon  the  banks 
of  the  rivers.  There  is  a  wide  belt  called  the  Arctic 
Barrens  all  along  the  north,  but  below  that,  at  some 
distance  west  of  the  bay,  the  great  forests  of  Canada 
bridge  across  the  region  north  of  the  prairie  and  the 
plains,  and  cross  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  reach  the 
Pacific.  In  the  far  north  the  musk-ox  descends  al- 
most to  meet  the  moose  and  deer,  and  on  the  near 
slope  of  the  Rockies  the  wood-buffalo — larger,  darker, 
and  fiercer  than  the  bison  of  the  plains,  but  very  like 
him — still  roams  as  far  south  as  where  the  buffalo 
ran  highest  in  the  days  when  he  existed. 

Through  all  this  northern  country  the  cold  in 
winter  registers  40°,  and  even  50°,  below  zero,  and 
the  travel  is  by  dogs  and  sleds.  There  men  in  camp 
may  be  said  to  dress  to  go  to  bed.  They  leave  their 
winter's  store  of  dried  meat  and  frozen  fish  out-of- 
doors  on  racks  all  winter  (and  so  they  do  down  close 
to  Lake  Superior);  they  hear  from  civilization  only 
twice  a  year  at  the  utmost ;  and  when  supplies  have 
run  out  at  the  posts,  we  have  heard  of  their  boiling 
the  parchment  sheets  they  use  instead  of  glass  in 
their  windows,  and   of   their  cooking   the  fat  out  of 


"talking  musquash"  197 

beaver-skins  to  keep  from  starving,  though  beaver  is 
so  precious  that  such  recourse  could  only  be  had 
when  the  horses  and  dogs  had  been  eaten.  As  to 
the  value  of  the  beaver,  the  reader  who  never  has 
purchased  any  for  his  wife  may  judge  what  it  must 
be  by  knowing  that  the  company  has  long  imported 
buckskin  from  Labrador  to  sell  to  the  Chippeways 
around  Lake  Nipigon  in  order  that  they  may  not  be 
tempted,  as  of  old,  to  make  thongs  and  moccasins  of 
the  beaver ;  for  their  deer  are  poor,  with  skins  full  of 
worm-holes,  whereas  beaver  leather  is  very  tough  and 
fine. 

But  in  spite  of  the  severe  cold  winters,  that  are,  in 
fact,  common  to  all  the  fur  territory,  winter  is  the  de- 
lightful season  for  the  traders ;  around  the  bay  it  is 
the  only  endurable  season.  The  winged  pests  of 
which  I  have  spoken  are  by  no  means  confined  to 
the  tide-soaked  re2:ion  close  to  the  orreat  inland  sea. 
The  whole  country  is  as  wet  as  that  orange  of  which 
geographers  speak  when  they  tell  us  that  the  water 
on  the  earth's  surface  is  proportioned  as  if  we  were 
to  rub  a  rough  orange  with  a  wet  cloth.  Up  in 
what  we  used  to  call  British  America  the  illustra- 
tion is  itself  illustrated  in  the  countless  lakes  of  all 
sizes,  the  innumerable  small  streams,  and  the  many 
great  rivers  that  make  waterways  the  roads,  as  canoes 
are  the  wagons,  of  the  region.  It  is  a  vast  paradise 
for  mosquitoes,  and  I  have  been  hunted  out  of  fish- 
ing and  hunting  grounds  by  them  as  far  south  as  the 
border.  The  "  bull-dog  "  is  a  terror  reserved  for  es- 
pecial districts.     He  is  the  Sioux  of  the  insect  world, 

as  pretty  as  a  warrior  in  buckskin  and  beads,  but  car- 

13* 


198 


ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 


rying  a  red-hot  sword  blade,  which,  when  sheathed  in 
human  flesh,  will  make  the  victim  jump  a  foot  from 
the  ground,  though  there  is  no  after-pain  or  itching 
or  swelling  from  the  thrust. 

Having  seen  the  country,  let  us  turn 
to  the  forts.     Some  of  them  really 
were    forts,  in    so    far   as    pali- 
sades   and    sentry   towers  ;. 
and  double  doors  and 
CTuns  can  make  a 
fort,  and  one 
twenty 


INDIAN    HUNTERS   MOVING   CAM1> 


miles  below 
Winnipeg  was 
a  stone  fort.  It  is  still 
standing.  When  the  com- 
pany ruled  the  territory  as 
its  landlord,  the    defended 


"talking  musquash  199 

posts  were  on  the  plains  among  the  bad  Indians,  and 
on  the  Hudson  Bay  shore,  where  vessels  of  foreign 
nations  might  be  expected.  In  the  forests,  on  the 
lakes  and  rivers,  the  character  and  behavior  of  the 
fish-eating  Indians  did  not  warrant  armament.  The 
stockaded  forts  were  nearly  all  alike.  The  stock- 
ade was  of  timber,  of  about  such  a  height  that  a 
man  might  look  over  it  on  tiptoe.  It  had  towers  at 
the  corners,  and  York  Fort  had  a  great  "  lookout " 
tower  within  the  enclosure.  Within  the  barricade 
were  the  company's  buildings,  making  altogether  such 
a  picture  as  New  York  presented  when  the  Dutch 
founded  it  and  called  it  New  Amsterdam,  except 
that  we  had  a  church  and  a  stadt-house  in  our  en- 
closure. The  Hudson  Ba}^  buildings  were  some- 
times arranged  in  a  hollow  square,  and  sometimes  in 
the  shape  of  a  letter  H,  with  the  factor's  house  con- 
necting the  two  other  parts  of  the  character.  The 
factor's  house  was  the  best  dwelling,  but  there  were 
many  smaller  ones  for  the  laborers,  mechanics,  hunt- 
ers, and  other  non-commissioned  men.  A  long,  low> 
whitewashed  log -house  was  apt  to  be  the  clerks' 
house,  and  other  large  buildings  were  the  stores 
where  merchandise  was  kept,  the  fur -houses  where 
the  furs,  skins,  and  pelts  were  stored,  and  the  Indian 
trading-house,  in  which  all  the  bartering  was  done. 
A  powder-house,  ice-house,  oil-house,  and  either  a 
stable  or  a  boat-house  for  canoes  completed  the  post. 
All  the  houses  had  double  doors  and  windows,  and 
wherever  the  men  lived  there  w'as  a  tremendous 
stove  set  up  to  battle  with  the  cold. 

The  abode  of  jollity  was  the  clerks'  house,  or  bach- 


200  ON    CANADA  S   FRONTIER 

elors'  quarters.  Each  man  had  a  little  bedroom  con- 
taining his  chest,  a  chair,  and  a  bed,  with  the  walls 
covered  with  pictures  cut  from  illustrated  papers  or 
not,  according  to  each  man  s  taste.  The  big  room 
or  hall,  wdiere  all  met  in  the  long  nights  and  on  off 
days,  was  as  bare  as  a  baldpate  so  far  as  its  white- 
washed or  timbered  walls  went,  but  the  table  in  the 
middle  was  littered  with  pipes,  tobacco,  papers,  books, 
and  pens  and  ink,  and  all  around  stood  (or  rested  on 
hooks  overhead)  guns,  foils,  and  fishing-rods.  On 
Wednesdays  and  Saturdays  there  was  no  work  in  at 
least  one  big  factory.  Breakfast  was  served  at  nine 
o'clock,  dinner  at  one  o'clock,  and  tea  at  six  o'clock. 
The  food  varied  in  different  places.  All  over  the 
prairie  and  plains  great  stores  of  pemmican  were 
kept,  and  men  grew  to  like  it  very  much,  though  it 
was  nothing  but  dried  buffalo  beef  pounded  and 
mixed  with  melted  fat.  But  where  they  had  pemmi- 
can they  also  enjoyed  buffalo  hunch  in  the  season, 
and  that  was  the  greatest  delicacy,  except  moose  muf- 
fle (the  nose  of  the  moose),  in  all  the  territory.  In 
the  woods  and  lake  country  there  were  venison  and 
moose  as  well  as  beaver — w^hich  is  very  good  eating 
— and  many  sorts  of  birds,  but  in  that  region  dried 
fish  (salmon  in  the  west,  and  lake  trout  or  white-fish 
nearer  the  bay)  was  the  staple.  The  young  fellows 
hunted  and  fished  and  smoked  and  drank  and  lis- 
tened to  the  songs  of  the  voyageurs  and  the  yarns  of 
the  "  breeds  "  and  Indians.  For  the  rest  there  was 
plenty  of  work  to  do. 

They  had  a  costume  of  their  own,  and,  indeed,  in 
that  respect  there  has  been  a  sad  change,  for  all  the 


SETTING    A    MINK-TRAP 


people,  white,  red,  and  crossed,  dressed  picturesquely. 
You  could  always  distinguish  a  Hudson  Bay  man  by 
his  capote  of  light  blue  cloth  with  brass  buttons.  In 
winter  they  wore  as  much  as  a  Quebec  carter.  They 
wore  leather  coats  lined  with  flannel,  edged  with  fur, 
and  double-breasted.  A  scarlet  worsted  belt  went 
around  their  waists,  their  breeches  were  of  smoked 
buckskin,  reaching  down  to  three  pairs  of  blanket 
socks  and  moose  moccasins,  with  blue  cloth  leggins 
up  to  the  knee.  Their  buckskin  mittens  were  hung 
from  their  necks  by  a  cord,  and  usually  they  wrapped 
a  shawl  of  Scotch  plaid  around  their  necks  and 
shoulders,  while  on  each  one's  head  was  a  fur  cap 
with  ear-pieces. 


202  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

The  French  Canadians  and  "  breeds,"  who  were 
the  voyageurs  and  hunters,  made  a  gay  appearance. 
They  used  to  wear  the  company's  regulation  Hght 
blue  capotes,  or  coats,  in  winter,  with  flannel  shirts, 
either  red  or  blue,  and  corduroy  trousers  gartered  at 
the  knee  with  bead  -  work.  They  all  wore  gaudy 
worsted  belts,  long,  heavy  woollen  stockings  —  cov- 
ered with  gayly- fringed  leggins  —  fancy  moccasins, 
and  tuques,  or  feather -decked  hats  or  caps  bound 
with  tinsel  bands.  In  mild  weather  their  costume 
was  formed  of  a  blue  striped  cotton  shirt,  corduroys, 
blue  cloth  leggins  bound  with  orange  ribbons,  the  in- 
evitable sash  or  worsted  belt,  and  moccasins.  Every 
hunter  carried  a  powder-horn  slung  from  his  neck, 
and  in  his  belt  a  tomahawk,  which  often  served  also 
as  a  pipe.  As  late  as  1862,  Viscount  Milton  and 
W.  B.  Cheadle  describe  them  in  a  book.  The  North- 
west Passage  by  Land,  in  the  following  graphic  lan- 
guage : 

"  The  men  appeared  in  gaudy  array,  with  beaded  fire-bag,  gay 
sash,  blue  or  scarlet  leggings,  girt  below  the  knee  with  beaded  gar- 
ters, and  moccasins  elaborately  embroidered.  The  (half-breed)  wom- 
en were  in  short,  bright-colored  skirts,  showing  richly  embroidered 
leggings  and  white  moccasins  of  cariboo -skin  beautifully  worked 
with  flowery  patterns  in  beads,  silk,  and  moose  hair." 

The  trading-room  at  an  open  post  was  —  and  is 
now — like  a  cross-roads  store,  having  its  shelves 
laden  with  every  imaginable  article  that  Indians 
like  and  hunters  need — clothes,  blankets,  files,  scalp- 
knives,  gun  screws,  flints,  twine,  fire-steels,  awls,  beads, 
needles,  scissors,  knives,  pins,  kitchen  ware,  guns, 
powder,  and  shot.     An    Indian  who    came    in  with 


"talking  musquash  205 

furs  threw  them  down,  and  when  they  were  counted 
received  the  right  number  of  castors — Httle  pieces  of 
wood  which  served  as  money — with  which,  after  the 
hours  of  reflection  an  Indian  spends  at  such  a  time, 
he  bought  what  he  wanted. 

But  there  was  a  wide  difference  between  such  a 
trading-room  and  one  in  the  plains  country,  or  where 
there  were  dangerous  Indians — such  as  some  of  the 
Crees,  and  the  Chippeways,  Blackfeet,  Bloods,  Sarcis, 
Sioux,  Sicanies,  Stonies,  and  others.  In  such  places 
the  Indians  were  let  in  only  one  or  two  at  a  time, 
the  snoods  were  hidden  so  as  not  to  excite  their  cu- 
pidity,  and  through  a  square  hole  grated  with  a  cross 
of  iron,  whose  spaces  were  only  large  enough  to  pass 
a  blanket,  what  they  wanted  was  given  to  them. 
That  is  all  done  away  with  now,  except  it  be  in 
northern  British  Columbia,  where  the  Indians  have 
been  turbulent. 

Farther  on  we  shall  perhaps  see  a  band  of  Indians 
on  their  way  to  trade  at  a  post.  Their  custom  is  to 
wait  until  the  first  signs  of  spring,  and  then  to  pack 
up  their  winter's  store  of  furs,  and  take  advantage  of 
the  last  of  the  snow  and  ice  for  the  journey.  They 
hunt  from  November  to  May;  but  the  trapping  and 
shooting  of  bears  go  on  until  the  15th  of  June,  for 
those  animals  do  not  come  from  their  winter  den^ 
until  May  begins.  They  come  to  the  posts  in  their 
best  attire,  and  in  the  old  days  that  formed  as  strong 
a  contrast  to  their  present  dress  as  their  leather 
tepees  of  old  did  to  the  cotton  ones  of  to-day.  Bal- 
lantyne,  who  wrote  a  book  about  his  service  with  the 
great  fur  company,  says  merely  that  they  were  paint-^ 


204  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

ed,  and  with  scalp-locks  fringing  their  clothes;  but  in 
Lewis  and  Clarke's  journal  we  read  description  after 
description  of  the  brave  costuming  of  these  color-and- 
ornament- loving  people.  Take  the  Sioux,  for  in- 
stance. Their  heads  were  shaved  of  all  but  a  tuft 
of  hair,  and  feathers  hung  from  that.  Instead  of 
the  universal  blanket  of  to-day,  their  main  garment 
was  a  robe  of  buffalo-skin  with  the  fur  left  on,  and 
the  inner  surface  dressed  white,  painted  gaudily  with 
figures  of  beasts  and  queer  designs,  and  fringed  with 
porcupine  quills.  They  wore  the  fur  side  out  only 
in  wet  weather.  Beneath  the  robe  they  wore  a  shirt 
of  dressed  skin,  and  under  that  a  leather  belt,  under 
which  the  ends  of  a  breech-clout  of  cloth,  blanket 
stuff,  or  skin  were  tucked.  They  wore  leggins  of 
dressed  antelope  hide  with  scalp -locks  fringing  the 
seams,  and  prettily  beaded  moccasins  for  their  feet. 
They  had  necklaces  of  the  teeth  or  claws  of  wild 
beasts,  and  each  carried  a  fire -bag,  a  quiver,  and  a 
brightly  painted  shield,  giving  up  the  quiver  and 
shield  when  guns  came  into  use. 

The  Indians  who  came  to  trade  were  admitted  to 
the  store  precisely  as  voters  are  to  the  polls  under 
the  Australian  system  —  one  by  one.  They  had  to 
leave  their  guns  outside.  When  rum  was  given  out, 
each  Indian  had  to  surrender  his  knife  before  he  got 
his  tin  cup. 

The  company  made  great  use  of  the  Iroquois,  and 
considered  them  the  best  boatmen  in  Canada.  Sir 
Alexander  Mackenzie,  of  the  Northwest  Company, 
employed  eight  of  them  to  paddle  him  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean  by  way  of  the   Peace   and   Fraser  rivers,  and 


^a»  "ililMuilM  ■■'■■[iij«i«M<aHMl»OII^K*W!;t        <^ 


1( 


"  TALKING    MUSQUASH  20/ 

when  the  greatest  of  Hudson  Bay  executives,  Sir 
George  Simpson,  travelled,  Iroquois  always  propelled 
him.  The  company  had  a  uniform  for  all  its  Indian 
employes — a  blue,  gray,  or  blanket  capote,  very  loose, 
and  reaching  below  the  knee,  with  a  red  worsted  belt 
around  the  waist,  a  cotton  shirt,  no  trousers,  but  art- 
fully beaded  leggins  with  wide  flaps  at  the  seams, 
and  moccasins  over  blanket  socks.  In  winter  they 
wore  buckskin  coats  lined  with  flannel,  and  mittens 
were  oriven  to  them.  We  have  seen  how  the  half- 
breeds  were  dressed.  They  were  long  employed  at 
women's  work  in  the  forts,  at  making  clothing  and  at 
mending.  All  the  mittens,  moccasins,  fur  caps,  deer- 
skin coats,  etc.,  were  made  by  them.  They  were  also 
the  washer-women. 

Perhaps  the  factor  had  a  good  time  in  the  old 
days,  or  thought  he  did.  He  had  a  wife  and  serv- 
ants and  babies,  and  when  a  visitor  came,  which  was 
not  as  often  as  snow-drifts  blew  over  the  stockade, 
he  entertained  like  a  lord.  At  first  the  factors  used 
to  send  to  London,  to  the  head  oflice,  for  a  wife,  to 
be  added  to  the  annual  consignment  of  goods,  and 
there  must  have  been  a  few  who  sent  to  the  Orkneys 
for  the  sweethearts  they  left  there.  But  in  time  the 
rule  came  to  be  that  they  married  Indian  squaws. 
In  doing  this,  not  even  the  first  among  them  acted 
blindly,  for  their  old  rivals  and  subsequent  com- 
panions of  the  Northwest  and  X.  Y.  companies  be- 
gan the  custom,  and  the  French  voyageurs  and  cou- 
retirs  du  bois  had  mated  with  Indian  women  before 
there  was  a  Hudson  Bay  Company.  These  rough 
and  hardy  woodsmen,  and  a  large  number  of   half- 


2o8  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

breeds  born  of  just  such  alliances,  began  at  an  early- 
day  to  settle  near  the  trading-posts.  Sometimes  they 
established  what  might  be  called  villages,  but  were 
really  close  imitations  of  Indian  camps,  composed  of 
a  cluster  of  skin  tepees,  racks  of  fish  or  meat,  and  a 
swarm  of  dogs,  women,  and  children.  In  each  tepee 
was  the  fireplace,  beneath  the  flue  formed  by  the 
open  top  of  the  habitation,  and  around  it  were  the 
beds  of  brush,  covered  with  soft  hides,  the  inevitable 
copper  kettle,  the  babies  swaddled  in  blankets  or 
moss  bags,  the  women  and  dogs,  the  gun  and  paddle, 
and  the  junks  and  strips  of  raw  meat  hanging  over- 
head in  the  smoke.  This  has  not  changed  to-day ; 
indeed,  very  little  that  I  shall  speak  of  has  altered  in 
the  true  or  far  fur  country.  The  camps  exist  yet. 
They  are  not  so  clean  (or,  rather,  they  are  more 
dirty),  and  the  clothes  and  food  are  poorer  and  harder 
to  get ;  that  is  all. 

The  Europeans  saw  that  these  women  were  docile, 
or  were  kept  in  order  easily  by  floggings  with  the 
tent  poles  ;  that  they  were  faithful  and  industrious,  as 
a  rule,  and  that  they  were  not  all  unprepossessing 
— from  their  point  of  view,  of  course.  Therefore  it 
came  to  pass  that  these  were  the  most  frequent  alli- 
ances in  and  out  of  the  posts  in  all  that  country. 
The  consequences  of  this  custom  were  so  peculiar 
and  important  that  I  must  ask  leave  to  pause  and 
consider  them.  In  Canada  we  see  that  the  white 
man  thus  made  his  bow  to  the  redskin  as  a  brother 
in  the  truest  sense.  The  old  coureurs  of  Norman 
and  Breton  stock,  loving  a  wild,  free  life,  and  in  com- 
plete sympathy  with  the   Indian,  bought  or  took  the 


"talking  musquash 


209 


squaws  to  wife,  learned  the 
Indian  dialects,  and  shared 
their  food  and  adventures 
with  the  tribes.  As  more 
and  more  entered  the  wil- 
derness, and  at  last  came  to 
be  supported,  in  camps  and 
at  posts  and  as  voyageurs, 
by  the  competing  fur  com- 
panies, there  grew  up  a  class  V , 
of  half  -  breeds  who  spoke 
English  and  French,  mar- 
ried Indians,  and  were  as 
much  at  home  with  the 
savages  as  with  the  whites. 
From  this  stock  the  Hudson 
Bay  men  have  had  a  better 
choice  of  wives  for  more 
than  a  century.  But  when 
these  "  breeds  "  were  turbu- 
lent and  murderous — first  in 
the  attacks  on  Selkirk's  col- 
ony, and  next  during  the 
Riel  rebellion — the  Indians 
remained  quiet.  They  de- 
fined their  position  when,  in 
18 19,  they  were  tempted 
with  great  bribes  to  massa- 
cre the  Red  River  colonists.  "  No,"  said  they;  "the 
colonists  are  our  friends."  The  men  who  sought  to 
excite  them  to  murder  were  the  officers  of  the  North- 
west Company,  who  bought  furs  of  them,  to  be  sure, 
14 


A  VOYAGEUR  OR  CANOE  -  MAN  OF 
GREAT  SLAVE  LAKE 


2IO  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

but  the  colonists  had  shared  with  the  Indians  in  pov- 
erty and  plenty,  giving  now  and  taking  then.  All 
were  alike  to  the  red  men — friends,  white  men,  and 
of  the  race  that  had  taken  so  many  of  their  women 
to  wife.  Therefore  they  went  to  the  colonists  to  tell 
them  what  was  being  planned  against  them,  and  not 
from  that  day  to  this  has  an  Indian  band  taken  the 
war-path  against  the  Canadians.  I  have  read  Gen- 
eral Custer's  theory  that  the  United  States  had  to 
do  with  meat- eating  Indians,  whereas  the  Canadian 
tribes  are  largely  fish-eaters,  and  I  have  seen  10,000 
references  to  the  better  Indian  policy  of  Canada;  but 
I  can  see  no  difference  in  the  two  policies,  and  be- 
tween the  Rockies  and  the  Great  Lakes  I  find  that 
Canada  had  the  Stonies,  Blackfeet,  and  many  other 
fierce  tribes  of  buffalo -hunters.  It  is  in  the  slow, 
close -growing  acquaintance  between  the  two  races, 
and  in  the  just  policy  of  the  Hudson  Bay  men  tow- 
ards the  Indians,  that  I  see  the  reason  for  Canada's 
enviable  experience  with  her  red  men. 

But  even  the  Hudson  Bay  men  have  had  trouble 
with  the  Indians  in  recent  years,  and  one  serious 
affair  grew  out  of  the  relations  between  the  com- 
pany's servants  and  the  squaws.  There  is  etiquette 
even  among  savages,  and  this  was  ignored  up  at  old 
Fort  St.  Johns,  on  the  Peace  River,  with  the  result 
that  the  Indians  slaughtered  the  people  there  and 
burned  the  fort.  They  were  Sicanie  Indians  of  that 
region,  and  after  they  had  massacred  the  men  in 
charge,  they  met  a  boat-load  of  white  men  coming  up 
the  river  with  goods.  To  them  they  turned  their 
guns  also,  and  only  four  escaped.     It  was  up  in  that 


"talking  musquash  213 

country  likewise — just  this  side  of  the  Rocky  Mount- 
ains, where  the  plains  begin  to  be  forested — that  a 
silly  clerk  in  a  post  quarrelled  with  an  Indian,  and 
said  to  him,  "  Before  you  come  back  to  this  post 
again,  your  wife  and  child  will  be  dead."  He  spoke 
hastily,  and  meant  nothing,  but  squaw  and  pappoose 
happened  to  die  that  winter,  and  the  Indian  walked 
into  the  fort  the  next  spring  and  shot  the  clerk  with- 
out a  word. 

^y'To-day  the  posts  are  little  village-like  collections 
of  buildings,  usually  showing  white  against  a  green 
background  in  the  prettiest  way  imaginable ;  for,  as 
a  rule,  they  cluster  on  the  lower  bank  of  a  river,  or 
the  lower  near  shore  of  a  lake.  There  are  not  clerks 
enough  in  most  of  them  to  render  a  clerks'  house 
necessary,  for  at  the  little  posts  half-breeds  are  seen 
to  do  as  good  service  as  Europeans.  As  a  rule, 
there  is  now  a  store  or  trading-house  and  a  fur-house 
and  the  factor's  house,  the  canoe -house  and  the 
stable,  with  a  barn  where  gardening  is  done,  as  is 
often  the  case  when  soil  and  climate  permit.  Often 
the  fur-house  and  store  are  combined,  the  furs  being 
laid  in  the  upper  story  over  the  shop.  There  is  al- 
ways a  flag-staff,  of  course.  This  and  the  flag,  with 
the  letters  "  H.  B.  C."  on  its  field,  led  to  the  old  hunt- 
ers' saying  that  the  initials  stood  for  "  Here  before 
Christ,"  because,  no  matter  how  far  away  from  the 
frontier  a  man  might  go,  in  regions  he  fancied  no 
white  man  had  been,  that  flag  and  those  letters  stared 
him  in  the  face.  You  will  often  find  that  the  factor, 
rid  of  all  the  ancient  timidity  that  called  for  "  palisa- 
does  and  swivels,"  lives  on  the  high  upper  bank  above 


214  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

the  store.  The  usual  half-breed  or  Indian  villacre  is 
seldom  farther  than  a  couple  of  miles  away,  on  the 
same  water.  The  factor  is  still,  as  he  always  has 
been,  responsible  only  to  himself  for  the  discipline 
and  management  of  his  post,  and  therefore  among 
the  factories  we  will  find  all  sorts  of  homes — homes 
where  a  piano  and  the  magazines  are  prized,  and 
daughters  educated  abroad  shed  the  lustre  of  refine- 
ment upon  their  surroundings,  homes  where  no  wom- 
an rules,  and  homes  of  the  French  half-breed  type, 
which  we  shall  see  is  a  very  different  mould  from 
that  of  the  two  sorts  of  British  half-breed  that  are 
numerous.  There  never  was  a  rule  by  which  to 
gauge  a  post.  In  one  you  found  religion  valued  and 
missionaries  welcomed,  while  in  others  there  never 
was  sermon  or  hymn.  In  some,  Hudson  Bay  rum 
met  the  rum  of  the  free-traders,  and  in  others  no  rum 
was  bartered  away.  To-day,  in  this  latter  respect, 
the  Dominion  law  prevails,  and  rum  may  not  be 
given  or  sold  to  the  red  man. 

When  one  thinks  of  the  lives  of  these  factors,  hid- 
den away  in  forest,  mountain  chain,  or  plain,  or  arctic 
barren,  seeing  the  same  very  few  faces  year  in  and 
year  out,  with  breaches  of  the  monotonous  routine 
once  a  year  when  the  winter's  furs  are  brought  in, 
and  once  a  year  when  the  mail-packet  arrives — when 
one  thinks  of  their  isolation,  and  lack  of  most  of 
those  influences  which  we  in  our  walks  prize  the 
highest,  the  reason  for  their  choosing  that  company's 
service  seems  almost  mysterious.  Yet  they  will  tell 
you  there  is  a  fascination  in  it.  This  could  be  under- 
stood so  far  as  the  half-breeds  and  French  Canadians 


"talking  musquash  215 

were  concerned,  for  they  inherited  the  Hking;  and, 
after  all,  though  most  of  them  are  only  laborers,  no 
other  laborers  are  so  free,  and  none  spice  life  with  so 
much  of  adventure.  But  the  factors  are  mainly  men 
of  ability  and  good  origin,  well  fitted  to  occupy  re- 
sponsible positions,  and  at  better  salaries.  However, 
from  the  outset  the  rule  has  been  that  they  have  be- 
come as  enamoured  of  the  trader's  life  as  soldiers  and 
sailors  always  have  of  theirs.  They  have  usually  re- 
tired from  it  reluctantly,  and  some,  having  gone  home 
to  Europe,  have  begged  leave  to  return. 

The  company  has  always  been  managed  upon 
something  like  a  military  basis.  Perhaps  the  original 
necessity  for  forts  and  men  trained  to  the  use  of  arms 
suggested  this.  The  uniforms  were  in  keeping  with 
the  rest.  The  lowest  rank  in  the  service  is  that  of 
the  laborer,  who  may  happen  to  fish  or  hunt  at  times, 
but  is  employed — or  enlisted,  as  the  fact  is,  for  a 
term  of  years  —  to  cut  wood,  shovel  snow,  act  as  a 
porter  or  gardener,  and  labor  generally  about  the 
post.  The  interpreter  was  usually  a  promoted  la- 
borer, but  long  ago  the  men  in  the  trade,  Indians 
and  whites  alike,  met  each  other  half-way  in  the  mat- 
ter of  language.  The  highest  non-commissioned 
rank  in  early  days  was  that  of  the  postmaster  at  large 
posts.  Men  of  that  rank  often  got  charge  of  small 
outposts,  and  we  read  that  they  were  "  on  terms  of 
equality  with  gentlemen."  To-day  the  service  has 
lost  these  fine  points,  and  the  laborers  and  commis- 
sioned officers  are  sharply  separated.  The  so-called 
"  gentleman  "  begins  as  a  prentice  clerk,  and  after  a 
few  years  becomes  a  clerk.     His  next  elevation  is  to 


2l6  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

the  rank  of  a  junior  chief  trader,  and  so  on  through 
the  grades  of  chief  trader,  factor,  and  chief  factor,  to 
the  office  of  chief  commissioner,  or  resident  American 
manager,  chosen  by  the  London  board,  and  having 
full  powers  delegated  to  him.  A  clerk — or  "  dark," 
as  the  rank  is  called — may  never  touch  a  pen.  He 
may  be  a  trader.  Then  again  he  may  be  truly  an 
accountant.  With  the  rank  he  gets  a  commission, 
and  that  entitles  him  to  a  minimum  guarantee,  with 
a  conditional  extra  income  based  on  the  profits  of  the 
fur  trade.  Men  get  promotions  through  the  chief 
commissioner,  and  he  has  always  made  fitness,  rather 
than  seniority,  the  criterion.  Retiring  officers  are 
salaried  for  a  term  of  years,  the  original  pension  fund 
and  system  having  been  broken  up. 

Sir  Donald  A.  Smith,  the  present  governor  of  the 
company,  made  his  way  to  the  highest  post  from  the 
place  of  a  prentice  clerk.  He  came  from  Scotland 
as  a  youth,  and  after  a  time  was  so  unfortunate  as  to 
be  sent  to  the  coast  of  Labrador,  where  a  man  is  as 
much  out  of  both  the  world  and  contact  with  the 
heart  of  the  company  as  it  is  possible  to  be.  The 
military  system  was  felt  in  that  instance ;  but  every 
man  who  accepts  a  commission  engages  to  hold  him. 
self  in  readiness  to  go  cheerfully  to  the  north  pole,  or 
anywhere  between  Labrador  and  the  Queen  Char- 
lotte Islands.  However,  to  a  man  of  Sir  Donald's 
parts  no  obstacle  is  more  than  a  temporary  impedi- 
ment. Though  he  stayed  something  like  seventeen 
years  in  Labrador,  he  worked  faithfully  when  there 
was  work  to  do,  and  in  his  own  time  he  read  and 
studied  voraciously.     When  the  Riel  rebellion  —  the 


"  TALKING    MUSQUASH 


217 


first  one  —  disturbed 
the  country's  peace, 
he  appeared  on  the 
scene  as  commissioner 
for  the  Government. 
Next  he  became  chief 
commissioner  for  the 
Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany. After  a  time  he 
resigned  that  office  to 
go  on  the  board  in 
London,  and  thence 
he  stepped  easily  to 
the  governorship.  His 
parents,  whose  home 
was  in  Morayshire, 
Scotland,  gave  him  at 
his  birth,  in  182 1,  not 
only  a  constitution  of 
iron,  but  that  shrewd- 
ness   which    is    onlv 

Scotch,  and  he  afterwards  developed  remarkable  fore- 
sight, and  such  a  grasp  of  affairs  and  of  complex  sit- 
uations as  to  amaze  his  associates. 

Of  course  his  career  is  almost  as  singular  as  his 
gifts,  and  the  governorship  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be 
the  goal  of  the  general  ambition,  for  it  has  been  most 
apt  to  go  to  a  London  man.  Even  ordinary  promo- 
tion in  the  company  is  very  slow,  and  it  follows  that 
most  men  live  out  their  existence  between  the  rank 
of  clerk  and  that  of  chief  factor.  There  are  200  cen- 
tral posts,  and  innumerable  dependent  posts,  and  the 


VOYAGEUR    WITH   TUMPLINE 


2l8  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

officers  are  continually  travelling  from  one  to  an- 
other, some  in  their  districts,  and  the  chief  or  super- 
vising ones  over  vast  reaches  of  country.  In  winter, 
when  dogs  and  sleds  are  used,  the  men  walk,  as  a 
rule,  and  it  has  been  nothing  for  a  man  to  trudge 
I  GOO  miles  in  that  way  on  a  winter's  journey.  Rod- 
erick Macfarlane,  who  was  cut  off  from  the  world  up 
in  the  Mackenzie  district,  became  an  indefatigable 
explorer,  and  made  most  of  his  journeys  on  snow- 
shoes.  He  explored  the  Peel,  the  Liard,  and  the 
Mackenzie,  and  their  surrounding  regions,  and  went 
far  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  where  he  founded  the 
most  northerly  post  of  the  company.  By  the  regular 
packet  from  Calgary,  near  our  border,  to  the  north- 
ernmost post  is  a  3000- mile  journey.  Macfarlane 
was  fond  of  the  study  of  ornithology,  and  classified 
and  catalogued  all  the  birds  that  reach  the  frozen 
regions. 

I  heard  of  a  factor  far  up  on  the  east  side  of  Hud- 
son Bay  who  reads  his  daily  newspaper  every  morn- 
ing with  his  coffee — but  of  course  such  an  instance  is 
a  rare  one.  He  manages  it  by  having  a  complete  set 
of  the  London  Times  sent  to  him  by  each  winter's 
packet,  and  each  morning  the  paper  of  that  date  in 
the  preceding  year  is  taken  from  the  bundle  by  his 
servant  and  dampened,  as  it  had  been  when  it  left  the 
press,  and  spread  by  the  factor's  plate.  Thus  he  gets 
for  half  an  hour  each  day  a  taste  of  his  old  habit  and 
life  at  home. 

There  was  another  factor  who  developed  artistic 
capacity,  and  spent  his  leisure  at  drawing  and  paint- 
ing.    He  did  so  well  that  he  ventured  many  sketches 


"TALKING    musquash"  21^ 

for  the  illustrated  papers  of  London,  some  of  which 
were  published. 

The  half-breed  has  developed  with  the  age  and 
growth  of  Canada.  There  are  now  half-breeds  and 
half-breeds,  and  some  of  them  are  titled,  and  others 
hold  high  official  places.  It  occurred  to  an  English 
lord  not  long  ago,  while  he  was  being  entertained  in 
a  Government  house  in  one  of  the  parts  of  new^er 
Canada,  to  inquire  of  his  host,  "  What  are  these  half- 
breeds  I  hear  about?  I  should  like  to  see  what  one 
looks  like."  His  host  took  the  nobleman's  breath 
away  by  his  reply.  "  I  am  one,"  said  he.  There  is 
no  one  who  has  travelled  much  in  western  Canada 
who  has  not  now  and  then  been  entertained  in  homes 
where  either  the  man  or  woman  of  the  household  was 
of  mixed  blood,  and  in  such  homes  I  have  found  a 
high  degree  of  refinement  and  the  most  polished 
manners.  Usually  one  needs  the  information  that 
such  persons  possess  such  blood.  After  that  the 
peculiar  black  hair  and  certain  facial  features  in  the 
subject  of  such  gossip  attest  the  truthfulness  of  the 
assertion.  There  is  no  rule  for  measuring  the  char- 
acter and  quality  of  this  plastic,  receptive,  and  often 
very  ambitious  element  in  Canadian  society,  yet  one 
may  say  broadly  that  the  social  position  and  attain- 
ments of  these  people  have  been  greatly  influenced 
by  the  nationality  of  their  fathers.  For  instance,  the 
French  habitants  and  woodsmen  far,  far  too  often 
sank  to  the  level  of  their  wives  when  they  married 
Indian  women.  Light-hearted,  careless,  unambitious, 
and  drifting  to  the  wilderness  because  of  the  absence 
of  restraint  there ;  illiterate,  of  coarse  origin,  fond  of 


220  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

whiskey  and  gambling — they  threw  off  superiority  to 
the  Indian,  and  evaded  responsibiHty  and  concern  in 
home  management.  Of  course  this  is  not  a  rule,  but 
a  tendency.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Scotch  and 
English  forced  their  wives  up  to  their  own  standards. 
Their  own  home  training,  respect  for  more  than  the 
forms  of  religion,  their  love  of  home  and  of  a  perma. 
nent  patch  of  ground  of  their  own — all  these  had 
their  effect,  and  that  has  been  to  rear  half-breed  chil- 
dren in  proud  and  comfortable  homes,  to  send  them 
to  mix  with  the  children  of  cultivated  persons  in  old 
communities,  and  to  fit  them  with  pride  and  ambition 
and  cultivation  for  an  equal  start  in  the  journey  of 
life.  Possessing  such  foundation  for  it,  the  equality 
has  happily  never  been  denied  to  them  in  Canada. 

To-day  the  service  is  very  little  more  inviting  than 
in  the  olden  time.  The  loneliness  and  removal  from 
the  touch  of  civilization  remain  throughout  a  vast 
region ;  the  arduous  journeys  by  sled  and  canoe  re- 
main ;  the  dangers  of  fiood  and  frost  are  undimin- 
ished.  Unfortunately,  among  the  changes  made  by 
time,  one  is  that  which  robs  the  present  factor's  sur- 
roundings of  a  great  part  of  that  which  was  most 
picturesque.  Of  all  the  prettinesses  of  the  Indian 
costuming  one  sees  now  only  a  trace  here  and  there 
in  a  few  tribes,  while  in  many  the  moccasin  and 
tepee,  and  in  some  only  the  moccasin,  remain.  The 
birch -bark  canoe  and  the  snow-shoe  are  the  main 
reliance  of  both  races,  but  the  steamboat  has  been 
impressed  into  parts  of  the  service,  and  most  of  the 
descendants  of  the  old-time  voyageur  preserve  only 
his  worsted  belt,  his  knife,  and  his  cap   and  mocca- 


"talking  musquash  223 

sins  at  the  utmost.  In  places  the  engage  has  become 
a  mere  deck-hand.  His  scarlet  paddle  has  rotted 
away ;  he  no  longer  awakens  the  echoes  of  forest  or 
canon  with  chansons  that  died  in  the  throats  of  a 
generation  that  has  gone.  In  return,  the  horrors  of 
intertribal  war  and  of  a  precarious  foothold  among 
fierce  and  turbulent  bands  have  nearly  vanished ; 
but  there  was  a  spice  in  them  that  added  to  the  fas- 
cination of  the  service. 

The  dogs  and  sleds  form  a  very  interesting  part  of 
the  Hudson  Bay  outfit.  One  does  not  need  to  go 
very  deep  into  western  Canada  to  meet  with  them. 
As  close  to  our  centre  of  population  as  Nipigon,  on 
Lake  Superior,  the  only  roads  into  the  north  are  the 
rivers  and  lakes,  traversed  by  canoes  in  summer  and 
sleds  in  winter.  The  dogs  are  of  a  peculiar  breed, 
and  are  called  "  huskies  " — undoubtedly  a  corruption 
of  the  word  Esquimaux.  They  preserve  a  closer  re- 
semblance to  the  wolf  than  any  of  our  domesticated 
dogs,  and  exhibit  their  kinship  with  that  scavenger 
of  the  wilderness  in  their  nature  as  well  as  their 
looks.  To-day  their  females,  if  tied  and  left  in  the 
forest,  will  often  attest  companionship  with  its  deni- 
zens by  bringing  forth  litters  of  wolfish  progeny. 
Moreover,  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  feed  all  with 
whom  the  experiment  is  tried,  for  the  wolves  will  be 
apt  to  bring  food  to  them  as  long  as  they  are  thus 
neglected  by  man.  They  are  often  as  large  as  the 
ordinary  Newfoundland  dog,  but  their  legs  are  short- 
er,  and  even  more  hairy,  and  the  hair  along  their 
necks,  from  their  shoulders  to  their  skulls,  stands 
erect  in  a  thick,  bristling  mass.     They  have  the  long 


224  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

snouts,  sharp -pointed  ears,  and  the  tails  of  wolves^ 
and  their  cry  is  a  yelp  rather  than  a  bark.  Like 
wolves  they  are  apt  to  yelp  in  chorus  at  sunrise  and 
at  sunset.  They  delight  in  worrying  peaceful  ani- 
mals, setting  their  own  numbers  against  one,  and 
they  will  kill  cows,  or  even  children,  if  they  get  the 
chance.  They  are  disciplined  only  when  at  work, 
and  are  then  so  surprisingly  obedient,  tractable,  and 
industrious  as  to  plainly  show  that  though  their  nat- 
ure is  savage  and  wolfish,  they  could  be  reclaimed  by 
domestication.  In  isolated  cases  plenty  of  them  are. 
As  it  is,  in  their  packs,  their  battles  among  them- 
selves are  terrible,  and  they  are  dangerous  when 
loose.  In  some  districts  it  is  the  custom  to  turn 
them  loose  in  summer  on  little  islands  in  the  lakes, 
leaving  them  to  hunger  or  feast  according  as  the 
supply  of  dead  fish  thrown  upon  the  shore  is  small 
or  plentiful.  When  they  are  kept  in  dog  quarters 
they  are  simply  penned  up  and  fed  during  the  sum- 
mer, so  that  the  savage  side  of  their  nature  gets  full 
play  during  long  periods.  Fish  is  their  principal 
diet,  and  stores  of  dried  fish  are  kept  for  their  winter 
food.  Corn  meal  is  often  fed  to  them  also.  Like  a 
wolf  or  an  Indian,  a  "  husky"  gets  along  without  food 
when  there  is  not  any,  and  will  eat  his  own  weight 
of  it  when  it  is  plenty. 

A  typical  dog-sled  is  very  like  a  toboggan.  It  is 
formed  of  two  thin  pieces  of  oak  or  birch  lashed  to- 
gether with  buckskin  thongs  and  turned  up  high  in 
front.  It  is  usually  about  nine  feet  in  length  by  six- 
teen inches  wide.  A  leather  cord  is  run  along  the 
outer  edges  for  fastening  whatever  may  be  put  upon 


"talking  musquash  225 

the  sled.  Varying  numbers  of  dogs  are  harnessed  to 
such  sleds,  but  the  usual  number  is  four.  Traces, 
collars,  and  backhands  form  the  harness,  and  the  dogs 
are  hitched  one  before  the  other.  Very  often  the 
collars  are  completed  with  sets  of  sleigh  -  bells,  and 
sometimes  the  harness  is  otherwise  ornamented  with 
beads,  tassels,  fringes,  or  ribbons.  The  leader,  or  fore- 
goer,  is  always  the  best  in  the  team.  The  dog 
next  to  him  is  called  the  steady  dog,  and  the  last  is 
named  the  steer  dog.  As  a  rule,  these  faithful  ani- 
mals are  treated  harshly,  if  not  brutally.  It  is  a 
Hudson  Bay  axiom  that  no  man  who  cannot  curse 
in  three  languages  is  fit  to  drive  them.  The  three 
profanities  are,  of  course,  English,  French,  and  Ind- 
ian, though  whoever  has  heard  the  Northwest  French 
knows  that  it  ought  to  serve  by  itself,  as  it  is  half- 
soled  with  Anglo-Saxon  oaths  and  heeled  with  Ind- 
ian obscenity.  The  rule  with  whoever  goes  on  a 
dog-sled  journey  is  that  the  driver,  or  mock-passenger, 
runs  behind  the  dogs.  The  main  function  of  the 
sled  is  to  carry  the  dead  weight,  the  burdens  of  tent- 
covers,  blankets,  food,  and  the  like.  The  men  run 
along  with  or  behind  the  dogs,  on  snow-shoes,  and 
when  the  dogs  make  better  time  than  horses  are  able 
to,  and  will  carry  between  200  and  300  pounds  over 
daily  distances  of  from  20  to  35  miles,  according  to 
the  condition  of  the  ice  or  snow,  and  that  many  a 
journey  of  1000  miles  has  been  performed  in  this 
way,  and  some  of  2000  miles,  the  test  of  human  en- 
durance is  as  great  as  that  of  canine  grit. 

Men  travelling  "  light,"  with  extra  sleds  for  the 
freight,  and  men  on  short  journeys  often  ride  in  the 

15 


226  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

sleds,  which  in  such  cases  are  fitted  up  as  "  carioles  " 
for  the  purpose.  I  have  heard  an  unauthenticated 
account,  by  a  Hudson  Bay  man,  of  men  who  drove 
themselves,  disciplining  refractory  or  lazy  dogs  by 
simply  pulling  them  in  beside  or  over  the  dash-board, 
and  holding  them  down  by  the  neck  while  they 
thrashed  them.  A  story  is  told  of  a  worthy  bishop 
who  complained  of  the  slow  progress  his  sled  was 
making,  and  was  told  that  it  was  useless  to  complain, 
as  the  dogs  would  not  work  unless  they  were  round- 
ly and  incessantly  cursed.  After  a  time  the  bishop 
gave  his  driver  absolution  for  the  profanity  needed 
for  the  remainder  of  the  journey,  and  thenceforth 
sped  over  the  snow  at  a  gallop,  every  stroke  of  the 
half-breed's  long  and  cruel  whip  being  sent  home 
with  a  volley  of  wicked  words,  emphasized  at  times 
with  peltings  with  sharp -edged  bits  of  ice.  Kane, 
the  explorer,  made  an  average  of  57  miles  a  day  be- 
hind these  shaggy  little  brutes.  Milton  and  Cheadle, 
in  their  book,  mention  instances  where  the  dogs  made 
140  miles  in  less  than  48  hours,  and  the  Bishop  of 
Rupert's  Land  told  me  he  had  covered  20  miles  in 
a  forenoon  and  20  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day, 
without  causing  his  dogs  to  exhibit  evidence  of  fa- 
tisfue.  The  best  time  is  made  on  hard  snow  and  ice, 
of  course,  and  when  the  conditions  suit,  the  drivers 
whip  off  their  snow-shoes  to  trot  behind  the  dogs 
more  easily.  In  view  of  what  they  do,  it  is  no  won- 
der that  many  of  the  Northern  Indians,  upon  first 
seeing  horses,  named  them  simply  "  big  dog."  But 
to  me  the  performances  of  the  drivers  are  the  more 
wonderful.      It  was  a  white  vouth,  son   of   a  factor. 


L 


"  TALKING    MUSQUASH  "  229 

who  ran  behind  the  bishop's  dogs  in  the  spurt  of  40 
miles  by  dayhght  that  I  mention.  The  men  who  do 
such  work  explain  that  the  "  lope"  of  the  dogs  is  pe- 
culiarly suited  to  the  dog-trot  of  a  human  being. 

A  picture  of  a  factor  on  a  round  of  his  outposts,  or 
of  a  chief  factor  racing  through  a  great  district,  will 
now  be  intelligible.  If  he  is  riding,  he  fancies  that 
princes  and  lords  would  envy  him  could  they  see  his 
luxurious  comfort.  Fancy  him  in  a  dog-cariole  of 
the  best  pattern — a  little  suggestive  of  a  burial  cas- 
ket, to  be  sure,  in  its  shape,  but  gaudily  painted,  and 
so  full  of  soft  warm  furs  that  the  man  within  is  en- 
veloped like  a  chrysalis  in  a  cocoon.  Perhaps  there 
are  Russian  bells  on  the  collars  of  the  dogs,  and 
their  harness  is  "Frenchified"  with  bead-work  and 
tassels.  The  air,  which  fans  only  his  face,  is  crisp 
and  invigorating,  and  before  him  the  lake  or  stream 
over  which  he  rides  is  a  sheet  of  virgin  snow — not 
nature's  winding-sheet,  as  those  who  cannot  love 
nature  have  said,  but  rather  a  robe  of  beautiful  er- 
mine fringed  and  embroidered  with  dark  evergreen, 
and  that  in  turn  flecked  at  every  point  with  snow,  as 
if  bejewelled  with  pearls.  If  the  factor  chats  with 
his  driver,  who  falls  behind  at  rough  places  to  keep 
the  sled  from  tipping  over,  their  conversation  is  car- 
ried on  at  so  high  a  tone  as  to  startle  the  birds  into 
flight,  if  there  are  any,  and  to  shock  the  scene  as  by 
the  greatest  rudeness  possible  in  that  then  vast,  silent 
land.  If  silence  is  kept,  the  factor  reads  the  prints 
of  game  in  the  snow,  of  foxes'  pads  and  deer  hoofs,  of 
wolf  splotches,  and  the  queer  hieroglyphics  of  birds, 

or  the  dots  and  troughs  of  rabbit-trailing.     To  him 

IS* 


230  ON    CANADA'S    FRONTIER 

these  are  as  legible  as  the  Morse  alphabet  to  telegra- 
phers, and  as  important  as  stock  quotations  to  the 
pallid  men  of  Wall  Street. 

Suddenly  in  the  distance  he  sees  a  human  figure. 
Time  was  that  his  predecessors  would  have  stopped 
to  discuss  the  situation  and  its  dangers,  for  the  sight 
of  one  Indian  suggested  the  presence  of  more,  and 
the  question  came,  were  these  friendly  or  fierce  ? 
But  now  the  sled  hurries  on.  It  is  only  an  Indian 
or  half-breed  hunter  minding  his  traps,  of  which  he 
may  have  a  sufficient  number  to  give  him  a  circuit 
of  ten  or  more  miles  away  from  and  back  to  his 
lodge  or  village.  He  is  approached  and  hailed  by 
the  driver,  and  with  some  pretty  name  very  often — 
one  that  may  mean  in  English  "  hawk  flying  across 
the  sky  when  the  sun  is  setting,"  or  "  blazing  sun,"  or 
whatever.  On  goes  the  sled,  and  perhaps  a  village  is 
the  next  object  of  interest ;  not  a  village  in  our  sense 
of  the  word,  but  now  and  then  a  tepee  or  a  hut  peep- 
ing above  the  brush  beside  the  water,  the  eye  being 
led  to  them  by  the  signs  of  slothful  disorder  close  by 
— the  rotting  canoe  frame,  the  bones,  the  dirty  tat- 
tered blankets,  the  twig-formed  skeleton  of  a  steam 
bath,  such  as  Indians  resort  to  when  tired  or  sick  or 
uncommonly  dirty,  the  worn-out  snow-shoes  hung  on 
a  tree,  and  the  racks  of  frozen  fish  or  dried  meat  here 
and  there.  A  dog  rushes  down  to  the  water- side 
barking  furiously — an  Indian  dog  of  the  currish  type 
of  paupers'  dogs  the  world  around — and  this  stirs 
the  village  pack,  and  brings  out  the  squaws,  who  are 
addressed,  as  the  trapper  up  the  stream  was,  by 
some  poetic  names,  albeit  poetic  license  is  sometimes 


"talking  musquash  231 

strained  to  form  names  not  at  all  pretty  to  polite 
senses,  "  All  Stomach  "  being  that  of  one  dusky  prin- 
cess, and  serving  to  indicate  the  lengths  to  which 
poesy  may  lead  the  untrammelled  mind. 

The  sun  sinks  early,  and  if  our  traveller  be  jour- 
neying in  the  West  and  be  a  lover  of  nature,  heaven 
send  that  his  face  be  turned  towards  the  sunset ! 
Then,  be  the  sky  anything  but  completely  storm- 
draped,  he  will  see  a  sight  so  glorious  that  eloquence 
becomes  a  naked  suppliant  for  alms  beyond  the  gift 
of  language  when  set  to  describe  it.  A  few  clouds 
are  necessary  to  its  perfection,  and  then  they  take  on 
celestial  dyes,  and  one  sees,  above  the  vanished  sun, 
a  blaze  of  golden  yellow  thinned  into  a  tone  that  is 
luminous  crystal.  This  is  flanked  by  belts  and 
breasts  of  salmon  and  ruby  red,  and  all  melt  towards 
the  zenith  into  a  rose  tone  that  has  body  at  the  base, 
but  pales  at  top  into  a  mere  blush.  This  I  have 
seen  night  after  night  on  the  lakes  and  the  plains 
and  on  the  mountains.  But  as  the  glory  of  it  beck- 
ons the  traveller  ever  towards  itself,  so  the  farther  he 
follows,  the  more  brilliant  and  gaudy  will  be  his  re- 
ward. Beyond  the  mountains  the  valleys  and  waters 
are  more  and  more  enriched,  until,  at  the  Pacific, 
even  San  Francisco's  shabby  sand-hills  stir  poetry 
and  reverence  in  the  soul  by  their  borrowed  magnifi- 
cence. 

The  travellers  soon  stop  to  camp  for  the  night, 
and  while  the  "  breed  "  falls  to  at  the  laborious  but 
quick  and  simple  work,  the  factor  either  helps  or 
smokes  his  pipe.  A  sight-seer  or  sportsman  would 
have  set  his  man  to  bobbing  for  jack -fish  or  lake 


232  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

trout,  or  would  have  stopped  a  while  to  bag  a  par- 
tridsfe,  or  mi2:ht  have  bous^ht  whatever  of  this  sort 
the  trapper  or  Indian  village  boasted,  but,  ten  to  one, 
this  meal  would  be  of  bacon  and  bread  or  dried 
meat,  and  perhaps  some  flapjacks,  such  as  would 
bring  coin  to  a  doctor  in  the  city,  but  which  seem 
ethereal  and  delicious  in  the  wilderness,  particularly 
if  made  half  an  inch  thick,  saturated  with  grease,  well 
browned,  and  eaten  while  at  the  temperature  and 
consistency  of  molten  lava. 

The  sled  is  pulled  up  by  the  bank,  the  ground  is 
cleared  for  a  fire,  wood  and  brush  are  cut,  and  the 
deft  laborer  starts  the  flame  in  a  tent-like  pyramid  of 
kindlings  no  higher  or  broader  than  a  teacup.  This 
tiny  fire  he  spreads  by  adding  fuel  until  he  has  con- 
structed and  led  up  to  a  conflagration  of  logs  as 
thick  as  his  thighs,  cleverly  planned  with  a  backlog 
and  glowing  fire  bed,  and  a  sapling  bent  over  the 
hottest  part  to  hold  a  pendent  kettle  on  its  tip.  The 
dogs  will  have  needed  disciplining  long  before  this, 
and  if  the  driver  be  like  many  of  his  kind,  and  works 
himself  into  a  fury,  he  will  not  hesitate  to  seize  one 
and  send  his  teeth  together  through  its  hide  after  he 
has  beaten  it  until  he  is  tired.  The  point  of  order 
having  thus  been  raised  and  carried,  the  shaggy, 
often  handsome,  animals  will  be  minded  to  forget 
their  private  grudges  and  quarrels,  and,  seated  on 
their  haunches,  with  their  intelligent  faces  towards 
the  fire,  will  watch  the  cooking  intently.  The  pocket- 
knives  or  sheath-knives  of  the  men  will  be  apt  to  be 
the  only  table  implement  in  use  at  the  meal.  Cana- 
da had  reached   the   possession  of  seigniorial   man- 


"talking  musquash"  235 

sions  of  great  character  before  any  other  knife  was 
brought  to  table,  though  the  ladies  used  costly  blades 
set  in  precious  and  beautiful  handles.  To-day  the 
axe  ranks  the  knife  in  the  wilderness,  but  he  who 
has  a  knife  can  make  and  furnish  his  own  table — 
and  his  house  also,  for  that  matter. 

Supper  over,  and  a  glass  of  grog  having  been  put 
down,  with  water  from  the  hole  in  the  ice  whence 
the  liquid  for  the  inevitable  tea  was  gotten,  the 
night's  rest  is  begun.  The  method  for  this  varies. 
As  good  men  as  ever  walked  have  asked  nothing 
more  cosey  than  a  snug  warm  trough  in  the  snow  and 
a  blanket  or  a  robe;  but  perhaps  this  traveller  will 
call  for  a  shake-down  of  balsam  boughs,  with  all  the 
furs  out  of  the  sled  for  his  covering.  If  nicer  yet,  he 
may  order  a  low  hollow  chamber  of  three  sides  of 
banked  snow,  and  a  superstructure  of  crotched  sticks 
and  cross-poles,  with  canvas  thrown  over  it.  Every 
man  to  his  quality,  of  course,  and  that  of  the  servant 
calls  for  simply  a  blanket.  With  that  he  sleeps  as 
soundly  as  if  he  were  Santa  Claus  and  only  stirred 
once  a  year.  Then  will  fall  upon  what  seems  the 
whole  world  the  mighty  hush  of  the  wilderness, 
broken  only  occasionally  by  the  hoot  of  an  owl,  the 
cry  of  a  wolf,  the  deep  thug  of  the  straining  ice  on 
the  lake,  or  the  snoring  of  the  men  and  dogs.  But 
if  the  earth  seems  asleep,  not  so  the  sky.  The  magic 
shuttle  of  the  aurora  borealis  is  ofttimes  at  work  up 
over  that  North  country,  sending  its  shifting  lights 
weaving  across  the  firmament  with  a  tremulous  brill- 
iancy and  energy  we  in  this  country  get  but  pale 
hints  of  when  we  see  the  phenomenon  at  all.     Flash- 


236  ON  Canada's  frontier 

ing  and  palpitating  incessantly,  the  rose-tinted  waves 
and  luminous  white  bars  leap  across  the  sky  or  dart 
up  and  down  it  in  manner  so  fantastic  and  so  force- 
ful, even  despite  their  shadowy  thinness,  that  travel- 
lers have  fancied  themselves  deaf  to  some  seraphic 
sound  that  they  believed  such  commotion  must  pro- 
-duce. 

An  incident  of  this  typical  journey  I  am  describing 
would,  at  more  than  one  season,  be  a  meeting  with 
some  band  of  Indians  going  to  a  post  with  furs  for 
barter.  Thou2:h  the  bulk  of  these  hunters  fetch  their 
quarry  in  the  spring  and  early  summer,  some  may 
come  at  any  time.  The  procession  may  be  only  that 
of  a  family  or  of  the  two  or  more  families  that  live  to- 
gether or  as  neighbors.  The  man,  if  there  is  but  one 
group,  is  certain  to  be  stalking  ahead,  carrying  noth- 
ing but  his  gun.  Then  come  the  women,  laden  like 
pack-horses.  They  may  have  a  sled  packed  with  the 
furs  and  drawn  by  a  dog  or  two,  and  an  extra  dog 
may  bear  a  balanced  load  on  his  back,  but  the  squaw 
is  certain  to  have  a  spine -warping  burden  of  meat 
and  a  battered  kettle  and  a  pappoose,  and  whatever 
personal  property  of  any  and  every  sort  she  and  her 
liege  lord  own.  Children  who  can  walk  have  to  do 
so,  but  it  sometimes  happens  that  a  baby  a  year  and 
a  half  or  two  years  old  is  on  her  back,  while  a  new- 
born infant,  swaddled  in  blanket  stuff,  and  bagged 
and  tied  like  a  Bologna  sausage,  surmounts  the  load 
on  the  sled.  A  more  tatterdemalion  outfit  than  a 
band  of  these  pauperized  savages  form  it  would  be 
difficult  to  imagine.  On  the  plains  they  will  have 
-horses  dragging  travoises,  dogs  with  travoises,  women 


"talking  musquash  237 

and  children  loaded  with  impedimenta,  a  colt  or  two 
running  loose,  the  lordly  men  riding  free,  straggling 
curs  a  plenty,  babies  in  arms,  babies  swaddled,  and 
toddlers  afoot,  and  the  whole  battalion  presenting  at 
its  exposed  points  exhibits  of  torn  blankets,  raw  meat, 
distorted  pots  and  pans,  tent,  poles,  and  rusty  traps, 
in  all  eloquently  suggestive  of  an  eviction  in  the 
slums  of  a  great  city. 

I  speak  thus  of  these  people  not  willingly,  but  out 
of  the  necessity  of  truth-telling.  The  Indian  east  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains  is  to  me  the  subject  of  an  ad- 
miration which  is  the  stronger  the  more  nearly  I  find 
him  as  he  was  in  his  prime.  It  is  not  his  fault  that 
most  of  his  race  have  degenerated.  It  is  not  our 
fault  that  we  have  better  uses  for  the  continent 
than  those  to  which  he  put  it.  But  it  is  our  fault 
that  he  is,  as  I  have  seen  him,  shivering  in  a  cotton 
tepee  full  of  holes,  and  turning  around  and  around 
before  a  fire  of  wet  wood  to  keep  from  freezing  to 
death ;  furnished  meat  if  he  has  been  fierce  enough 
to  make  us  fear  him,  left  to  starve  if  he  has  been  do- 
cile ;  taught,  aye,  forced  to  beg,  mocked  at  by  a  re- 
ligion he  cannot  understand,  from  the  mouths  of  men 
who  apparently  will  not  understand  him  ;  debauched 
with  rum,  despoiled  by  the  lust  of  white  men  in  every 
form  that  lust  can  take.  Ah,  it  is  a  sickening  story. 
Not  in  Canada,  do  you  say  ?  Why,  in  the  northern 
wilds  of  Canada  are  districts  peopled  by  beggars  who 
have  been  in  such  pitiful  stress  for  food  and  covering 
that  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  has  kept  them  alive 
with  advances  of  provisions  and  blankets  winter  after 
winter.      They  are    Indians   who   in   their   strength 


238  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

never  gave  the  Government  the  concern  it  now  fails 
to  show  for  their  weakness.  The  great  fur  company 
has  thus  added  generosity  to  its  long  career  of  just 
dealing  with  these  poor  adult  children  ;  for  it  is  a  fact 
that  though  the  company  has  made  what  profit  it 
might,  it  has  not,  in  a  century  at  least,  cheated  the 
Indians,  or  made  false  representations  to  them,  or 
lost  their  good-will  and  respect  by  any  feature  of  its 
policy  towards  them.  Its  relation  to  them  has  been 
paternal,  and  they  owe  none  of  their  degradation 
to  it. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  visits  of  the  natives  to  the 
posts.  There  are  two  other  arrivals  of  great  con- 
sequence—  the  coming  of  the  supplies,  and  of  the 
winter  mail  or  packet.  I  have  seen  the  provisions 
and  trade  goods  being  put  up  in  bales  in  the  great 
mercantile  storehouse  of  the  company  in  Winnipeg 
— a  store  like  a  combination  of  a  Sixth  Avenue 
ladies'  bazaar  and  one  of  our  wholesale  grocers'  shops 
— and  I  have  seen  such  weights  of  canned  vegetables 
and  canned  plum-pudding  and  bottled  ale  and  other 
luxuries  that  I  am  sure  that  in  some  posts  there  is 
good  living  on  high  days  and  holidays  if  not  always. 
The  stores  are  packed  in  parcels  averaging  sixty 
pounds  (and  sometimes  one  hundred),  to  make  them 
convenient  for  handling  on  the  portages — "  for  pack- 
ing them  over  the  carries,"  as  our  traders  used  to 
say.  It  is  in  following  these  supplies  that  we  be 
come  most  keenly  sensible  of  the  changes  time  has 
wrought  in  the  methods  of  the  company.  The  day 
was,  away  back  in  the  era  of  the  Northwest  Com- 
pany, that  the  goods  for  the  posts  went  up  the  Ottawa 


"  TALKING    MUSQUASH  "  241 

from  Montreal  in  great  canoes  manned  by  hardy  voy- 
ageiirs  in  picturesque  costumes,  wielding  scarlet  pad- 
dles, and  stirring  the  forests  with  their  happy  songs. 
The  scene  shifted,  the  companies  blended,  and  the 
centre  of  the  trade  moved  from  old  Fort  William, 
close  to  where  Port  Arthur  now  is  on  Lake  Superior, 
up  to  Winnipeg,  on  the  Red  River  of  the  North. 
Then  the  Canadians  and  their  cousins,  the  half-breeds, 
more  picturesque  than  ever,  and  manning  the  great 
York  boats  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  swept  in  a 
long  train  through  Lake  Winnipeg  to  Norway  House, 
and  thence  by  a  marvellous  water  route  all  the  way 
to  the  Rockies  and  the  Arctic,  sending  off  freight  for 
side  districts  at  fixed  points  along  the  course.  The 
main  factories  on  this  line,  maintained  as  such  for 
more  than  a  century,  bear  names  whose  very  mention 
stirs  the  blood  of  one  who  knows  the  romantic,  pictu- 
resque, and  poetic  history  and  atmosphere  of  the  old 
company  when  it  was  the  landlord  (in  part,  and  in 
part  monopolist)  of  a  territory  that  cut  into  our  North- 
west and  Alaska,  and  swept  from  Labrabor  to  Van- 
couver Island.  Northward  and  westward,  by  waters 
emptying  into  Hudson  Bay,  the  brigade  of  great  boats 
worked  through  a  region  embroidered  with  sheets 
and  ways  of  water.  The  system  that  was  next  en- 
tered, and  which  bore  more  nearly  due  west,  bends 
and  bulges  with  lakes  and  straits  like  a  ribbon  all 
curved  and  knotted.  Thus,  at  a  great  portage,  the 
divide  was  reached  and  crossed ;  and  so  the  waters 
flowing  to  the  Arctic,  and  one  —  the  Peace  River  — 
rising  beyond  the   Rockies,  were  met  and  travelled. 

This  was  the  way  and  the  method  until  after  the  Ca- 

16 


242  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

nadian  Pacific  Railway  was  built,  but  now  the  Winni- 
peg route  is  of  subordinate  importance,  and  feeds  only 
the  region  near  the  west  side  of  Hudson  Bay.  The 
Northern  supplies  now  go  by  rail  from  Calgary,  in. 
Alberta,  over  the  plains  by  the  new  Edmonton  rail- 
road. From  Edmonton  the  goods  go  by  cart  to  Atha- 
basca Landing,  there  to  be  laden  on  a  steamboat, 
which  takes  them  northward  until  some  rapids  are 
met,  and  avoided  by  the  use  of  a  singular  combina- 
tion of  bateaux  and  tramway  rails.  After  a  slow  prog- 
ress of  fifteen  miles  another  steamboat  is  met,  and 
thence  they  follow  the  Athabasca,  through  Atha- 
basca Lake,  and  so  on  up  to  a  second  rapids,  on  the 
Great  Slave  River  this  time,  where  oxen  and  carts 
carry  them  across  a  sixteen -mile  portage  to  a  screw 
steamer,  which  finishes  the  3000-mile  journey  to  the 
North.  Of  course  the  shorter  branch  routes,  dis- 
tributing the  goods  on  either  side  of  the  main  track, 
are  still  traversed  by  canoes  and  hardy  fellows  in 
the  old  way,  but  with  shabby  accessories  of  cos- 
tume and  spirit.  These  boatmen,  when  they  come 
to  a  portage,  produce  their  tomplines,  and  "  pack" 
the  goods  to  the  next  waterway.  By  means  of  these 
"  lines"  they  carry  great  weights,  resting  on  their 
backs,  but  supported  from  their  skulls,  over  which 
the  strong  straps  are  passed. 

The  winter  mail-packet,  starting  from  Winnipeg  in 
the  depth  of  the  season,  goes  to  all  the  posts  by  dog 
train.  The  letters  and  papers  are  packed  in  great 
boxes  and  strapped  to  the  sleds,  beside  or  behind 
which  the  drivers  trot  along,  cracking  their  lashes 
and  pelting  and  cursing  the  dogs.     A  more  direct 


"TALKING    MUSQUASH  243 

course  than  the  old  Lake  Winnipeg  way  has  usually 
been  followed  by  this  packet ;  but  it  is  thought  that 
the  route  via  Edmonton  and  Athabasca  Landing  will 
serve  better  yet,  so  that  another  change  may  be  made. 
This  is  a  small  exliibition  as  compared  with  the  bri- 
gade that  takes  the  supplies,  or  those  others  that 
come  plashing  down  the  streams  and  across  the  coun- 
try with  the  furs  every  year.  But  only  fancy  how 
•eagerly  this  solitary  semi-annual  mail  is  waited  for  ! 
It  is  a  little  speck  on  the  snow-wrapped  upper  end  of 
all  North  America.  It  cuts  a  tiny  trail,  and  here  and 
there  lesser  black  dots  move  off  from  it  to  cut  still 
slenderer  threads,  zigzagging  to  the  side  factories  and 
lesser  posts ;  but  we  may  be  sure  that  if  human  eyes 
could  see  so  far,  all  those  of  the  white  men  in  all  that 
vast  tangled  system  of  trading  centres  would  be  watch- 
ing the  little  caravan,  until  at  last  each  pair  fell  upon 
the  expected  missives  from  the  throbbing  world  this 
side  of  the  border. 


VIII 


T 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO 

HERE  is  on  this  continent  a  terri- 
tory of  imperial  extent  which  is 
one  of  the  Canadian  sisterhood  of 
States,  and  yet  of  which  small  ac- 
count has  been  taken  by  those 
who  discuss  either  the  most  ad- 
vantageous relations  of  trade  or 
that  closer  intimacy  so  often  re- 
ferred to  as  a  possibility  in  the  fut- 
ure of  our  country  and  its  north- 
ern neighbor.  Although  British 
Columbia  is  advancing  in  rank 
among  the  provinces  of  the  Do- 
minion by  reason  of  its  abundant 
natural  resources,  it  is  not  remark- 
able that  we  read  and  hear  little 
concerning  it.  The  people  in  it 
are  few,  and  the  knowledge  of  it  is 
even  less  in  proportion.  It  is  but 
partially  explored,  and  for  what 
can  be  learned  of  it  one  must  catch 
up  information  piecemeal  from  blue-books,  the  pam- 
phlets of  scientists,  from  tales  of  adventure,  and  from 
the  less  trustworthy  literature  composed  to  attract 
travellers  and  settlers. 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  245 

It  would  severely  strain  the  slender  facts  to  make 
a  sizable  pamphlet  of  the  history  of  British  Columbia. 
A  wandering  and  imaginative  Greek  called  Juan  de 
Fuca  told  his  people  that  he  had  discovered  a  passage 
from  ocean  to  ocean  between  this  continent  and  a 
great  island  in  the  Pacific.  Sent  there  to  seize  and 
fortify  it,  he  disappeared — at  least  from  history.  This 
was  about  1592.  In  1778  Captain  Cook  roughly  sur- 
veyed the  coast,  and  in  1792  Captain  Vancouver,  who 
as  a  boy  had  been  with  Cook  on  two  voyages,  ex- 
amined the  sound  between  the  island  and  the  main- 
land with  great  care,  hoping  to  find  that  it  led  to  the 
main  water  system  of  the  interior.  He  gave  to  the 
strait  at  the  entrance  the  nickname  of  the  Greek, 
and  in  the  following  year  received  the  transfer  of 
authority  over  the  country  from  the  Spanish  com- 
missioner Bodes^a  of  Ouadra,  then  established  there. 
The  two  put  aside  false  modesty,  and  named  the 
great  island  "  the  Island  of  Vancouver  and  Quadra." 
At  the  time  the  English  sailor  was  there  it  chanced 
that  he  met  that  hardy  old  homespun  baronet  Sir 
Alexander  Mackenzie,  who  was  the  first  man  to  cross 
the  continent,  making  the  astonishing  journey  in  a 
canoe  manned  by  Iroquois  Indians.  The  main-land 
became  known  as  New  Caledonia.  It  took  its  pres- 
ent name  from  the  Columbia  River,  and  that,  in  turn, 
got  its  name  from  the  ship  Columbia,  of  Boston,  Cap- 
tain Gray,  which  entered  its  mouth  in  1792,  long 
after  the  Spaniards  had  known  the  stream  and  called 
it  the  Oregon.  The  rest  is  quickly  told.  The  re- 
gion passed  into  the  hands  of  the  fur-traders.  Van- 
couver Island  became  a  crown  colony  in  1849,  ^•^d 


246  ON  Canada's  frontier 

British  Columbia  followed  in  1858.  They  were 
united  in  1866,  and  joined  the  Canadian  confedera- 
tion in  1 87 1.  Three  years  later  the  province  ex- 
ceeded both  Manitoba  and  Prince  Edward  Island  in 
the  value  of  its  exports,  and  also  showed  an  excess  of 
exports  over  imports.  It  has  a  Lieutenant-governor 
and  Legislative  Assembly,  and  is  represented  at  Ot- 
tawa in  accordance  with  the  Canadian  system.  Its 
people  have  been  more  closely  related  to  ours  in  busi- 
ness than  those  of  any  other  province,  and  they  en- 
tertain a  warm  friendly  feeling  towards  "the  States." 
In  the  larger  cities  the  Fourth  of  July  is  informally 
but  generally  observed  as  a  holiday. 

British  Columbia  is  of  immense  size.  It  is  as  ex- 
tensive as  the  combination  of  New  England,  the 
Middle  States  and  Maryland,  the  Virginias,  the  Caro- 
linas,  and  Georgia,  leaving  Delaware  out.  It  is  larger 
than  Texas,  Colorado,  Massachusetts,  and  New  Hamp- 
shire joined  together.  Yet  it  has  been  all  but  over- 
looked by  man,  and  may  be  said  to  be  an  empire 
with  only  one  wagon  road,  and  that  is  but  a  blind 
artery  halting  in  the  middle  of  the  countr}^  But 
whoever  follows  this  necessarily  incomplete  survey 
of  what  man  has  found  that  region  to  be,  and  of  what 
his  yet  puny  hands  have  drawn  from  it,  will  dismiss 
the  popular  and  natural  suspicion  that  it  is  a  wilder- 
ness worthy  of  its  present  fate.  Until  the  whole 
globe  is  banded  with  steel  rails  and  yields  to  the 
plough,  wc  will  continue  to  regard  whatever  region 
lies  beyond  our  doors  as  waste-land,  and  to  fancy  that 
every  line  of  latitude  has  its  own  unvarying  climatic 
characteristics.     There  is  an  opulent  civilization  in 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  247 

what  we  once  were  taught  was  "  the  Great  Ameri- 
can Desert,"  and  far  up  at  Edmonton,  on  the  Peace 
River,  farming  flourishes  despite  the  fact  that  it  is 
where  our  school-books  located  a  zone  of  perpetual 
snow.  Farther  along  we  shall  study  a  country 
crossed  by  the  same  parallels  of  latitude  that  dissect 
inhospitable  Labrador,  and  we  shall  discover  that  as 
o^reat  a  difference  exists  between' the  two  shores  of 
the  continent  on  that  zone  as  that  which  distinguish- 
es California  from  Massachusetts.  Upon  the  coast 
of  this  neQ:lected  corner  of  the  world  we  shall  see 
that  a  climate  like  that  of  England  is  produced,  as 
England's  is,  by  a  warm  current  in  the  sea ;  in  the 
southern  half  of  the  interior  we  shall  discover  valleys 
as  inviting  as  those  in  our  New  England ;  and  far 
north,  at  Port  Simpson,  just  below  the  down=reaching 
claw  of  our  Alaska,  we  shall  find  such  a  climate  as 
Halifax  enjoys. 

British  Columbia  has  a  length  of  800  miles,  and 
averages  400  miles  in  width.  To  whoever  crosses 
the  country  it  seems  the  scene  of  a  vast  earth-dis- 
turbance, over  which  mountains  are  scattered  with- 
out system.  In  fact,  however,  the  Cordillera  belt  is 
there  divided  into  four  ranges,  the  Rockies  forming 
the  eastern  boundary,  then  the  Gold  Range,  then  the 
Coast  Range,  and,  last  of  all,  that  partially  submerged 
chain  whose  upraised  parts  form  Vancouver  and  the 
other  mountainous  islands  near  the  main-land  in  the 
Pacific.  A  vast  valley  flanks  the  south-western  side 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  accompanying  them  from 
where  they  leave  our  North-western  States  in  a  wide 
straight  furrow  for  a  distance  of  700  miles.     Such 


248  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

great  rivers  as  the  Columbia,  the  Fraser,  the  Parsnip, 
the  Kootenay,  and  the  Finlay  are  encountered  in  it. 
While  it  has  a  lesser  agricultural  value  than  other 
valleys  in  the  province,  its  mineral  possibilities  are 
considered  to  be  very  great,  and  when,  as  must  be  the 
case,  it  is  made  the  route  of  communication  between 
one  end  of  the  territory  and  the  other,  a  vast  timber 
supply  will  be  rendered  marketable. 

The  Gold  Range,  next  to  the  westward,  is  not  bald, 
like  the  Rockies,  but,  excepting  the  higher  peaks,  is 
timbered  with  a  dense  forest  growth.  Those  busiest 
of  all  British  Columbian  explorers,  the  "  prospectors," 
have  found  much  of  this  system  too  difficult  even  for 
their  pertinacity.  But  the  character  of  the  region  is 
well  understood.  Here  are  high  plateaus  of  rolling 
country,  and  in  the  mountains  are  glaciers  and  snow 
fields.  Between  this  system  and  the  Coast  Range  is 
what  is  called  the  Interior  Plateau,  averaging  one 
hundred  miles  in  width,  and  following  the  trend  of 
that  portion  of  the  continent,  with  an  elevation  that 
grows  less  as  the  north  is  approached.  This  plateau 
is  crossed  and  followed  by  valleys  that  take  every  di- 
rection, and  these  are  the  seats  of  rivers  and  water, 
courses.  In  the  southern  part  of  this  plateau  is  the 
best  grazing  land  in  the  province,  and  much  fine  ag- 
ricultural country,  while  in  the  north,  where  the  cli- 
mate is  more  moist,  the  timber  increases,  and  parts 
of  the  land  are  thought  to  be  convertible  into  farms. 
Next  comes  the  Coast  Range,  whose  western  slopes 
are  enriched  by  the  milder  climate  of  the  coast ;  and 
beyond  lies  the  remarkably  tattered  shore  of  the 
Pacific,  lapped  by  a  sheltered  sea,  verdant,  indented 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  249 

by  numberless  inlets,  which,  in  turn,  are  faced  by  un- 
counted islands,  and  receive  the  discharge  of  almost 
as  many  streams  and  rivers — a  wondrously  beautiful 
region,  forested  by  giant  trees,  and  resorted  to  by 
numbers  of  fish  exceeding  calculation  and  belief. 
Beyond  the  coast  is  the  bold  chain  of  mountains 
of  which  Vancouver  Island  and  the  Queen  Char- 
lotte Islands  are  parts.  Here  is  a  vast  treasure  in 
that  coal  which  our  naval  experts  have  found  to 
be  the  best  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  here  also  are 
traces  of  metals,  whose  value  industry  has  not  yet 
established. 

It  is  a  question  whether  this  vast  territory  has  yet 
100,000  white  inhabitants.  Of  Indians  it  has  but 
20,000,  and  of  Chinese  about  8000.  It  is  a  vast  land 
of  silence,  a  huge  tract  slowly  changing  from  the 
field  and  pleasure-ground  of  the  fur-trader  and  sports- 
man to  the  quarry  of  the  miner.  The  Canadian  Pa- 
cific Railway  crosses  it,  revealing  to  the  immigrant 
and  the  globe-trotter  an  unceasing  panorama  of 
grand,  wild,  and  beautiful  scenery  unequalled  on  this 
continent.  During  a  few  hours  the  traveller  sees, 
across  the  majestic  cafion  of  the  Fraser,  the  neglected 
remains  of  the  old  Cariboo  stage  road,  built  under 
pressure  of  the  gold  craze.  It  demonstrated  surpris- 
ing energy  in  the  baby  colony,  for  it  connected  Yale, 
at  the  head  of  short  steam  navigation  on  the  Fra- 
ser, with  Barkerville,  in  the  distant  Cariboo  country, 
400  miles  away,  and  it  cost  $500,000.  The  traveller 
sees  here  and  there  an  Indian  villa2fe  or  a  "mission," 
and  now  and  then  a  tiny  town ;  but  for  the  most 
part   his   eye   scans    only   the    primeval    forest,  lofty 


250  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

mountains,  valleys  covered  with  trees  as  beasts  are 
with  fur,  cascades,  turbulent  streams,  and  husfe  shel- 
tered  lakes.  Except  at  the  stations,  he  sees  few 
men.  Now  he  notes  a  group  of  Chinamen  at  work 
on  the  railway;  anon  he  sees  an  Indian  upon  a 
clumsy  perch  and  searching  the  Fraser  for  salmon, 
or  in  a  canoe  paddling  towards  the  gorgeous  sunset 
that  confronts  the  daily  west-bound  train  as  it  rolls 
by  great  Shuswap  Lake. 

But  were  the  same  traveller  out  of  the  train,  and 
gifted  with  the  power  to  make  himself  ubiquitous, 
he  would  still  be,  for  the  most  part,  lonely.  Down  in 
the  smiling  bunch -grass  valleys  in  the  south  he 
would  see  here  and  there  the  outfit  of  a  farmer  or 
the  herds  of  a  cattle-man.  A  burst  of  noise  would 
astonish  him  near  by,  in  the  Kootenay  countr}^ 
where  the  new  silver  mines  are  being  worked,  where 
claims  have  been  taken  up  by  the  thousand,  and 
whither  a  railroad  is  hastening:.  Here  and  there,  at 
points  out  of  sight  one  from  another,  he  would  hear 
the  crash  of  a  lumberman's  axe,  the  report  of  a  hun- 
ter's rifle,  or  the  crackle  of  an  Indian's  fire.  On  the 
Fraser  he  would  find  a  little  town  called  Yale,  and 
on  the  coast  the  streets  and  ambitious  buildings  and 
busy  wharves  of  Vancouver  would  astonish  him. 
Victoria,  across  the  strait,  a  town  of  larger  size  and 
remarkable  beauty,  would  give  him  company,  and 
near  Vancouver  and  Victoria  the  little  cities  of  New 
Westminster  and  Nanaimo  (lumber  and  coal  ports 
respectively)  would  rise  before  him.  There,  close  to- 
gether, he  would  see  more  than  half  the  population 
of  the  province. 


AN    IMPRESSION    OF    SHUSWAP   LAKE, 
BRITISH    COLUMBIA 


■^^^ 


Fancy  his  isolation  as 
he  looked  around  him  in 
the  northern  half  of  the  ter- 
ritory, where  a  few  trails  lead  to  fewer  posts  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  where  the  endless  forests  and 
multitudinous  lakes  and  streams  are  cut  by  but  infre- 
quent paddles  in  the  hands  of  a  race  that  has  lost 
one-third  its  numerical  strength  in  the  last  ten  years^ 
where  the  only  true  homes  are  within  the  palisades 
or  the  unguarded  log-cabin  of  the  fur-trading  agents, 
and  where  the  only  other  white  men  are  either  wash- 
ing sand  in  the  river  bars,  driving  the  stages  of  the 
only  line  that  penetrates  a  piece  of  the  country,  or 
are  those  queer  devil-may-care  but  companionable 
Davy  Crocketts  of  the  day  who  are  guides  now  and 
then,  hunters  half  the  time,  placer-miners  when  they 
please,  and  whatever  else  there  is  a  call  for  between- 
times  ! 


252  ON    CANADA  S   FRONTIER 

A  very  strange  sight  that  my  supposititious  trav- 
eller would  pause  long  to  look  at  would  be  the  herds 
of  wild  horses  that  defy  the  Queen,  her  laws,  and  her 
subjects  in  the  Lillooet  Valley.  There  are  thousands 
of  them  there,  and  over  in  the  Nicola  and  Chilcotin 
country,  on  either  side  of  the  Fraser,  north  of  Wash- 
ington State.  They  were  originally  of  good  stock, 
but  now  they  not  only  defy  capture,  but  eat  valuable 
grass,  and  spoil  every  horse  turned  out  to  graze.  The 
newspapers  aver  that  the  Government  must  soon  be 
called  upon  to  devise  means  for  ridding  the  valleys 
of  this  nuisance.  This  is  one  of  those  sections  which 
promise  well  for  future  stock-raising  and  agricultural 
operations.  There  are  plenty  such.  The  Nicola 
Valley  has  been  settled  twenty  years,  and  there  are 
many  cattle  there,  on  numerous  ranches.  It  is  good 
land,  but  rather  high  for  grain,  and  needs  irrigation. 
The  snowfall  varies  greatly  in  all  these  valleys,  but  in 
ordinary  winters  horses  and  cattle  manage  well  with 
four  to  six  weeks'  feeding.  On  the  upper  Kootenay, 
a  valley  eight  to  ten  miles  wide,  ranching  began  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago,  during  the  gold  excitement. 
The  "cow -men"  raise  grain  for  themselves  there. 
This  valley  is  3000  feet  high.  The  Okanagon  Val- 
ley is  lower,  and  is  only  from  two  to  five  miles  wide, 
but  both  are  of  similar  character,  of  very  great  length, 
and  are  crossed  and  intersected  by  branch  valleys. 
The  greater  part  of  the  Okanagon  does  not  need 
irrisatine.  A  beautiful  country  is  the  Kettle  River 
region,  along  the  boundary  between  the  Columbia 
and  the  Okanagon.  It  is  narrow,  but  Hat  and  smooth 
on  the  bottom,  and  the  land  is  very  fine.     Bunch-grass 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  255 

covers  the  hills  around  it  for  a  distance  of  from  four 
hundred  to  five  hundred  feet,  and  there  timber  be- 
gins. It  is  only  in  occasional  years  that  the  Kettle 
River  Valley  needs  water.  In  the  Spallumcheen  Val- 
ley one  farmer  had  500  acres  in  grain  last  summer, 
and  the  most  modern  agricultural  machinery  is  in  use 
there.  These  are  mere  notes  of  a  few  among  almost 
innumerable  valleys  that  are  clothed  with  bunch- 
grass,  and  that  often  possess  the  characteristics  of 
beautiful  parks.  In  many  wheat  can  be  and  is  raised, 
possibly  in  most  of  them.  I  have  notes  of  the  suc- 
cessful growth  of  peaches,  and  of  the  growth  of  al- 
mond-trees to  a  height  of  fourteen  feet  in  four  years, 
both  in  the  Okanagon  country. 

The  shooting  in  these  valleys  is  most  alluring  to 
those  who  are  fond  of  the  sport.  Caribou,  deer,  bear, 
prairie-chicken,  and  partridges  abound  in  them.  In 
all  probability  there  is  no  similar  extent  of  country 
that  equals  the  valley  of  the  Columbia,  from  which^ 
in  the  winter  of  1888,  between  six  and  eight  tons  of 
deer-skins  were  shipped  by  local  traders,  the  result 
of  legitimate  hunting.  But  the  forests  and  mount- 
ains are  as  they  were  when  the  white  man  first  saw 
them,  and  though  the  beaver  and  sea-otter,  the  mar- 
ten, and  those  foxes  whose  furs  are  coveted  by  the 
rich,  are  not  as  abundant  as  they  once  were,  the  rest 
of  the  game  is  most  plentiful.  On  the  Rockies  and 
on  the  Coast  Range  the  mountain-goat,  most  difficult 
of  beasts  to  hunt,  and  still  harder  to  get,  is  abundant 
yet.  The  "big-horn,"  or  mountain-sheep,  is  not  so 
common,  but  the  hunting  thereof  is  usually  success- 
ful if  good  guides   are   obtained.      The   cougar,  the 


254  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

grizzly,  and  the  lynx  are  all  plentiful,  and  black  and 
brown  bears  are  very  numerous.  Elk  are  going  the 
way  of  the  "  big-horn  " — are  preceding  that  creature, 
in  fact.  Pheasants  (imported),  grouse,  quail,  and 
water-fowl  are  among  the  feathered  game,  and  the 
river  and  lake  fishing  is  such  as  is  not  approached 
in  any  other  part  of  the  Dominion.  The  province 
is  a  sportsman's  Eden,  but  the  hunting  of  big  game 
there  is  not  a  venture  to  be  lightly  undertaken.  It 
is  not  alone  the  distance  or  the  cost  that  gives  one 
pause,  for,  after  the  province  is  reached,  the  mountain- 
climbing  is  a  task  that  no  amount  of  wealth  will 
lighten.  And  these  are  genuine  mountains,  by-the- 
way,  wearing  eternal  caps  of  snow,  and  equally  eter- 
nal deceit  as  to  their  distances,  their  heights,  and  as 
to  all  else  concerning  which  a  rarefied  atmosphere 
can  hocus-pocus  a  stranger.  There  is  one  animal, 
king  of  all  the  beasts,  which  the  most  unaspiring 
hunter  may  chance  upon  as  well  as  the  bravest,  and 
that  animal  carries  a  perpetual  chip  upon  its  shoul- 
der, and  seldom  turns  from  an  encounter.  It  is  the 
grizzly-bear.  It  is  his  presence  that  gives  you  either 
zest  or  pause,  as  you  may  decide,  in  hunting  all  the 
others  that  roam  the  mountains.  Yet,  in  that  hun- 
ter's dream-land  it  is  the  grizzly  that  attracts  many 
sportsmen  every  year. 

From  the  headquarters  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Compa- 
ny in  Victoria  I  obtained  the  list  of  animals  in  whose 
skins  that  company  trades  at  that  station.  It  makes 
a  formidable  catalogue  of  zoological  products,  and 
is  as  follows :  Bears  (brown,  black,  grizzly),  beaver, 
badger,    foxes    (silver,  cross,   and    red),   fishers,   mar- 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  255 

tens,  minks,  lynxes,  musk-rat,  otter  (sea  or  land),  pan- 
ther, raccoon,  wolves  (black,  gray,  and  coyote),  black- 
tailed  deer,  stags  (a  true  stag,  growing  to  the  size  of 
an  ox,  and  found  on  the  hills  of  Vancouver  Island), 
caribou  or  reindeer,  hares,  mountain- goat,  big-horn 
(or  mountain-sheep),  moose  (near  the  Rockies),  wood- 
buffalo  (found  in  the  north,  not  greatly  different  from 
the  bison,  but  larger),  geese,  swans,  and  duck. 

The  British  Columbian  Indians  are  of  such  unpre- 
possessing appearance  that  one  hears  with  compara- 
tive equanimity  of  their  numbering  only  20,000  in 
all,  and  of  their  rapid  shrinkage,  owing  principally  to 
the  vices  of  their  women.  They  are,  for  the  most 
part,  canoe  Indians,  in  the  interior  as  well  as  on  the 
coast,  and  they  are  (as  one  might  suppose  a  nation 
of  tailors  would  become)  short-legged,  and  with  those 
limbs  small  and  inclined  to  bow.  On  the  other 
hand,  their  exercise  with  the  paddle  has  given  them 
a  disproportionate  development  of  their  shoulders 
and  chests,  so  that,  being  too  large  above  and  too 
small  below,  their  appearance  is  very  peculiar.  They 
are  fish -eaters  the  year  around ;  and  though  some, 
like  the  Hydahs  upon  the  coast,  have  been  warlike 
and  turbulent,  such  is  not  the  reputation  of  those  in 
the  interior.  It  was  the  meat -eating  Indian  who 
made  war  a  vocation  and  self-torture  a  dissipation. 
The  fish-eating  Indian  kept  out  of  his  way.  These 
short  squat  British  Columbian  natives  are  very  dark- 
skinned,  and  have  physiognomies  so  different  from 
those  of  the  Indians  east  of  the  Rockies  that  the 
study  of  their  faces  has  tempted  the  ethnologists  into 
extraordinary  guessing  upon  their  origin,  and  into  a 


256  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

contention  which  I  prefer  to  avoid.  It  is  not  guess- 
ing to  say  that  their  high  cheek-bones  and  flat  faces 
make  them  resemble  the  Chinese.  That  is  true  to 
such  a  degree  that  in  walking  the  streets  of  Victoria, 
and  meeting  alternate  Chinamen  and  Siwash,  it  is 
not  always  easy  to  say  which  is  which,  unless  one 
proceeds  upon  the  assumption  that  if  a  man  looks 
clean  he  is  apt  to  be  a  Chinaman,  whereas  if  he  is 
dirty  and  ragged  he  is  most  likely  to  be  a  Siwash. 

You  will  find  that  seven  in  ten  among  the  more 
intelligent  British  Columbians  conclude  these  Ind- 
ians to  be  of  Japanese  origin.  The  Japanese  cur- 
rent is  neighborly  to  the  province,  and  it  has  drifted 
Japanese  junks  to  these  shores.  When  the  first 
traders  visited  the  neighborhood  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  they  found  beeswax  in  the  sand  near  the 
vestiges  of  a  wreck,  and  it  is  said  that  one  wreck  of 
a  junk  was  met  with,  and  12,000  pounds  of  this  wax 
was  found  on  her.  Whalers  are  said  to  have  fre- 
quently encountered  wrecked  and  drifting  junks  in 
the  eastern  Pacific,  and  a  local  leo^end  has  it  that  in 
1834  remnants  of  a  junk  with  three  Japanese  and  a 
cargo  of  pottery  were  found  on  the  coast  south  of 
Cape  Flattery.  Nothing  less  than  all  this  should  ex- 
cuse even  a  rudderless  ethnoloo'ist  for  so  cruel  a  re- 
flection  upon  the  Japanese,  for  these  Indians  are  so 
far  from  pretty  that  all  who  see  them  agree  with  Cap- 
tain Butler,  the  traveller,  who  wrote  that  "  if  they  are 
of  the  Mongolian  type,  the  sooner  the  Mongolians 
change  their  type  the  better." 

The  coast  Indians  are  splendid  sailors,  and  their 
dugouts  do  not  always  come  off  second  best  in  rac- 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO 


257 


ing  with  the  boats  of  white  men.  With  a  primitive 
yet  ingeniously  made  tool,  like  an  adze,  in  the  con- 
struction of  which  a  blade  is  tied  fast  to  a  bent 
handle  of  bone,  these  natives  laboriously  pick  out  the 
heart  of  a  great  cedar  log,  and  shape  its  outer  sides 
into  the  form  of  a  boat.  When  the  log  is  properly 
hollowed,  they  fill  it  with  water,  and  then  drop  in 
stones  which  they  have  heated  in  a  fire.  Thus  they 
steam  the  boat  so  that  they  may  spread  the  sides  and 
fit  in  the  crossbars  which  keep  it  strong  and  pre- 
serve its  shape.  These  dugouts  are 
sometimes  sixty  feet  long,  and  are 
used  for  whaling  and  long  voyages 
in  rough  seas.  They  are  capable 
of  carrying  tons  of  the  salmon  or 
oolachan  or  herring,  of  which  these 
people,  who  live  as  their  fathers 
did,  catch  sufficient  in  a  few  days 
for  their  maintenance  throughout 
a  whole  year.  One  gets  an  idea 
of  the  swarms  of  fish  that  infest 
those  waters  by  the  knowledge 
that  before  nets  were  used  the  her- 
ring and  the  oolachan,  or  candle- 
fish,  were  swept  into  these  boats 
by  an  implement  formed  by  stud- 
ding a  ten-foot  pole  with  spikes  or 
nails.  This  was  swept  among  the  fish  in  the  water, 
and  the  boats  were  speedily  filled  with  the  creatures 
that  were  impaled  upon  the  spikes.  Salmon,  sea- 
otter,  otter,  beaver,  marten,  bear,  and  deer  (or  caribou 
or  moose)  were  and  still  are  the  chief  resources  of 
17 


THE  TSCHUMMUM,   OR 

TOOL   USED    IX    MAKING 

CANOES 


258  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

most  of  the  Indians.  Once  they  sold  the  fish  and 
the  peltry  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  and  ate 
what  parts  or  surplus  they  did  not  sell.  Now  they 
work  in  the  canneries  or  fish  for  them  in  summer, 
and  hunt,  trap,  or  loaf  the  rest  of  the  time.  Howev^er, 
while  they  still  fish  and  sell  furs,  and  while  some  are 
yet  as  their  fathers  were,  nearly  all  the  coast  Indians 
are  semi -civilized.  They  have  at  least  the  white 
man's  clothes  and  hymns  and  vices.  They  have 
churches ;  they  live  in  houses ;  they  work  in  can- 
neries. What  little  there  was  that  was  picturesque 
about  them  has  vanished  only  a  few  degrees  faster 
than  their  own  extinction  as  a  pure  race,  and  they 
are  now  a  lot  of  longshoremen.  What  Mr.  Duncan 
did  for  them  in  Metlakahtla — especially  in  housing 
the  families  separately — has  not  been  arrived  at  even 
in  the  reservation  at  Victoria,  where  one  may  still 
see  one  of  the  huge,  low,  shed-like  houses  they  prefer, 
ornamented  with  totem  poles,  and  arranged  for  eight 
families,  and  consequently  for  a  laxity  of  morals  for 
which  no  one  can  hold  the  white  man  responsible. 

They  are  a  tractable  people,  and  take  as  kindly 
to  the  rudiments  of  civilization,  to  work,  and  to  co- 
operation with  the  whites  as  the  plains  Indian  does 
to  tea,  tobacco,  and  whiskey.  They  are  physically 
but  not  mentally  inferior  to  the  plainsman.  They 
carve  bowls  and  spoons  of  stone  and  bone,  and  their 
heraldic  totem  poles  are  cleverly  shapen,  however 
grotesque  they  may  be.  They  still  make  them,  but 
they  oftener  carve  little  ones  for  white  people,  just  as 
they  make  more  silver  bracelets  for  sale  than  for  wear. 
They  are  clever  at  weaving  rushes  and  cedar  bark 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  259 

into  mats,  baskets,  floor-cloths,  and  cargo  covers.  In 
a  word,  they  were  more  prone  to  work  at  the  outset 
than  most  Indians,  so  that  the  present  longshore  ca- 
reer of  most  of  them  is  not  greatly  to  be  wondered  at. 
To  any  one  who  threads  the  vast  silent  forests  of 
the  interior,  or  journeys  upon  the  trafficless  water- 
ways, or,  gun  in  hand,  explores  the  mountains  for 
game,  the  infrequency  with  which  Indians  are  met 
becomes  impressive.  The  province  seems  almost 
unpeopled.  The  reason  is  that  the  majority  of  the 
Indians  were  ever  on  the  coast,  where  the  water 
yielded  food  at  all  times  and  in  plenty.  The  natives 
of  the  interior  were  not  well  fed  or  prosperous  when 
the  first  white  men  found  them,  and  since  then  small- 
pox, measles,  vice,  and  starvation  have  thinned  them 
terribly.  Their  graveyards  are  a  feature  of  the  scen- 
ery which  all  travellers  in  the  province  remember. 
From  the  railroad  they  may  be  seen  along  the  Era- 
ser, each  grave  apparently  having  a  shed  built  over 
it,  and  a  cross  rising  from  the  earth  beneath  the  shed. 
They  had  various  burial  customs,  but  a  majority 
buried  their  dead  in  this  way,  with  queerly-carved  or 
painted  sticks  above  them,  where  the  cross  now  testi- 
fies to  the  work  at  the  "  missions."  Some  Indians 
marked  a  man's  burial-place  with  his  canoe  and  his 
gun;  some  still  box  their  dead  and  leave  the  boxes 
on  top  of  the  earth,  while  others  bury  the  boxes. 
Among  the  southern  tribes  a  man's  horse  was  often 
killed,  and  its  skin  decked  the  man's  grave ;  while  in 
the  far  north  it  was  the  custom  among  the  Stickeens 
to  slaughter  the  personal  attendants  of  a  chief  when 
he  died.     The  Indians  along  the  Skeena  River  ere- 


26o  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

mated  their  dead,  and  sometimes  hung  the  ashes  in 
boxes  to  the  family  totem  pole.  The  Hydahs,  the 
fierce  natives  of  certain  of  the  islands,  have  given  up 
cremation,  but  they  used  to  believe  that  if  they  did 
not  burn  a  man's  body  their  enemies  would  make 
charms  from  it.  Polygamy  flourished  on  the  coast, 
and  monogamy  in  the  interior,  but  the  contrast  was 
due  to  the  difference  in  the  worldly  wealth  of  the 
Indians.  Wives  had  to  be  bought  and  fed,  and  the 
woodsmen  could  only  afford  one  apiece. 

To  return  to  their  canoes,  which  most  distinguish 
them.  When  a  dugout  is  hollowed  and  steamed,  a 
prow  and  stern  are  added  of  separate  wood.  The 
prow  is  always  a  work  of  art,  and  greatly  beautifies 
the  boat.  It  is  in  form  like  the  breast,  neck,  and 
bill  of  a  bird,  but  the  head  is  intended  to  represent 
that  of  a  savage  animal,  and  is  so  painted.  A  mouth 
is  cut  into  it,  ears  are  carved  on  it,  and  eyes  are 
painted  on  the  sides ;  bands  of  gay  paint  are  put 
upon  the  neck,  and  the  whole  exterior  of  the  boat  is 
then  painted  red  or  black,  with  an  ornamental  line 
of  another  color  along  the  edge  or  gunwale.  The 
sailors  sit  upon  the  bottom  of  the  boat,  and  propel 
it  with  paddles.  Upon  the  water  these  swift  vessels, 
with  their  fierce  heads  uplifted  before  their  long, 
slender  bodies,  appear  like  great  serpents  or  nonde- 
script marine  monsters,  yet  they  are  pretty  and 
graceful  withal.  While  still  holding  aloof  from  the 
ethnologists'  contention,  I  yet  may  add  that  a  book- 
seller in  Victoria  came  into  the  possession  of  a  packet 
of  photographs  taken  by  an  amateur  traveller  in  the 
interior  of  China,  and  on  my  first  visit  to  the  prov- 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO 


261 


ince,  nearly  four 
years  ago,  I 
found,  in  look- 
ing through 
these  views,  sev- 
eral Chinese 
boats  which 
were  strangely 
and  remarkably 
like  the  dug- 
outs of  the  pro- 
vincial Indians. 
They  were  too 
small  in  the 
pictures  for  it  to 
be  possible  to 
decide  whether 
they  were  built 
up  or  dug  out, 
but  in  general 
they  were  of  the 
same  external 
appearance,  and 
each  one  bore 
the  upraised  an- 
imal-head prow,  shaped  and  painted  like  those  I 
could  see  one  block  away  from  the  bookseller's 
shop  in  Victoria.  But  such  are  not  the  canoes 
used  by  the  Indians  of  the  interior.  From  the 
Kootenay  near  our  border  to  the  Cassiar  in  the  far 
north,  a  cigar-shaped  canoe  seems  to  be  the  general 
native    vehicle.     These    are    sometimes    made    of   a 


THE   FIRST   OF   THE   SALMON   RUN,   FRASER 
RIVER 


262  ON  Canada's  frontier 

sort  of  scroll  of  bark,  and  sometimes  they  are  dug- 
outs made  of  cotton-wood  logs.  They  are  narrower 
than  either  the  cedar  dugouts  of  the  coast  or  the 
birch-bark  canoes  of  our  Indians,  but  they  are  roomy, 
and  fit  for  the  most  dan'gerous  and  deft  work  in 
threading  the  rapids  which  everywhere  cut  up  the 
navigation  of  the  streams  of  the  province  into  sepa- 
rated reaches.  The  Rev.  Ur.  Gordon,  in  his  notes 
upon  a  journey  in  this  province,  likens  these  canoes 
to  horse -troughs,  but  those  I  saw  in  the  Kootenay 
country  were  of  the  shape  of  those  cigars  that  are 
pointed  at  both  ends. 

Whether  these  canoes  are  like  any  in  Tartary  or 
China  or  Japan,  I  do  not  know.  My  only  quest  for 
special  information  of  that  character  proved  disap- 
pointing. One  man  in  a  city  of  British  Columbia  is 
said  to  have  studied  such  matters  more  deeply  and 
to  more  purpose  than  all  the  others,  but  those  who 
referred  me  to  him  cautioned  me  that  he  was  eccen- 
tric. 

"  You  don't  know  where  these  Indians  came  from, 
eh .?"  the  savmit  replied  to  my  first  question.  "  Do 
you  know  how  oyster-shells  got  on  top  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains }  You  don't,  eh  }  Well,  I  know  a  woman 
who  went  to  a  dentist's  yesterday  to  have  eighteen 
teeth  pulled.  Do  you  know  why  women  prefer  arti- 
ficial teeth  to  those  which  God  has  given  them .? 
You  don't,  eh.'*  Why,  man,  you  don't  know  any- 
thing." 

While  we  were  —  or  he  was  —  conversing,  a  labor- 
ing-man who  carried  a  sickle  came  to  the  open  door, 
and  was  asked  what  he  wanted. 


Canada's  kl  dorado  263 

"  I  wish  to  cut  your  thistles,  sir,"  said  he. 

"  Thistles  ?"  said  the  savant,  disturbed  at  the  inter- 
ruption.    " the  thistles !     We  are  talking  about 

Indians." 

Nevertheless,  when  the  laborer  had  gone,  he  had 
left  the  subject  of  thistles  uppermost  in  the  savanfs 
mind,  and  the  conversation  took  so  erratic  a  turn 
that  it  might  well  have  been  introduced  hap-hazard 
into  Tristram  Shandy. 

"  About  thistles,"  said  the  savant,  laying  a  gentle 
hand  upon  my  knee.  "  Do  you  know  that  they  are  the 
Scotchmen's  totems  ?  Many  years  ago  a  Scotchman, 
sundered  from  his  native  land,  must  needs  set  up  his 
totem,  a  thistle,  here  in  this  country ;  and  now,  sir, 
the  thistle  is  such  a  curse  that  I  am  haled  up  twice  a 
year  and  fined  for  having  them  in  my  yard." 

But  nearly  enough  has  been  here  said  of  the  native 
population.  Though  the  Indians  boast  dozens  of 
tribal  names,  and  almost  every  island  on  the  coast 
and  village  in  the  interior  seems  the  home  of  a  sepa- 
rate tribe,  they  will  be  found  much  alike  —  dirty, 
greasy,  sore -eyed,  short -legged,  and  with  their  un- 
kempt hair  cut  squarely  off,  as  if  a  pot  had  been  up- 
turned over  it  to  guide  the  operation.  The  British 
Columbians  do  not  bother  about  their  tribal  divis- 
ions, but  use  the  old  traders'  Chinook  terms,  and  call 
every  male  a  "  siwash  "  and  every  woman  a  "  klootch- 
man." 

Since  the  highest  Canadian  authority  upon  the 
subject  predicts  that  the  northern  half  of  the  Cordil- 
leran  ranges  will  admit  of  as  high  a  metalliferous  de- 
velopment as  that  of  the  southern  half  in  our  Pacific 


264  ON  Canada's  frontier 

States,  it  is  important  to  review  what  has  been  done 
in  mining,  and  what  is  thought  of  the  future  of  that 
industry  in  the  province.  It  may  almost  be  said  that 
the  history  of  gold-mining  there  is  the  history  of  Brit- 
ish Columbia.  Victoria,  the  capital,  was  a  Hudson 
Bay  post  established  in  1843,  and  Vancouver,  Queen 
Charlotte's,  and  the  other  islands,  as  well  as  the  main- 
land, were  of  interest  to  only  a  few  white  men  as 
parts  of  a  great  fur-trading  field  with  a  small  Indian 
population.  The  first  nugget  of  gold  was  found  at 
what  is  now  called  Gold  Harbor,  on  the  west  coast 
of  the  Queen  Charlotte  Islands,  by  an  Indian  woman, 
in  185 1.  A  part  of  it,  weighing  four  or  five  ounces, 
was  taken  by  the  Indians  to  Fort  Simpson  and  sold. 
The  Hudson  Bay  Company,  which  has  done  a  little 
in  every  line  of  business  in  its  day,  sent  a  brigantine 
to  the  spot,  and  found  a  quartz  vein  traceable  eighty 
feet,  and  yielding  a  high  percentage  of  gold.  Blast- 
ing was  begun,  and  the  vessel  was  loaded  with  ore ; 
but  she  was  lost  on  the  return  voyage.  An  Ameri- 
can vessel,  ashore  at  Esquimault,  near  Victoria,  was 
purchased,  renamed  the  Recovery,  and  sent  to  Gold 
Harbor  with  thirty  miners,  who  worked  the  vein 
until  the  vessel  was  loaded  and  sent  to  England. 
News  of  the  mine  travelled,  and  in  another  year  a 
small  fleet  of  vessels  came  up  from  San  Francisco; 
but  the  supply  was  seen  to  be  very  limited,  and  after 
^20,000  in  all  had  been  taken  out,  the  field  was 
abandoned. 

In  1855  gold  was  found  by  a  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany's employe  at  Fort  Colville,  now  in  Washington 
State,  near  the   boundary.      Some  Thompson  River 


Canada's  el  dorado  265 

(B.  C)  Indians  who  went  to  Walla  Walla  spread  a  re- 
port there  that  gold,  like  that  discovered  at  Colville, 
was  to  be  found  in  the  valley  of  the  Thompson.  A 
party  of  Canadians  and  half-breeds  went  to  the  region 
referred  to,  and  found  placers  nine  miles  above  the 
mouth  of  the  river.  By  1858  the  news  and  the  au- 
thentication of  it  stirred  the  miners  of  California,  and 
an  astonishing  invasion  of  the  virgin  province  began. 
It  is  said  that  in  the  spring  of  1858  more  than  twenty 
thousand  persons  reached  Victoria  from  San  Fran- 
cisco by  sea,  distending  the  little  fur-trading  post 
of  a  few  hundred  inhabitants  into  what  would  even 
now  be  called  a  considerable  city ;  a  city  of  canvas, 
however.  Simultaneously  a  third  as  many  miners 
made  their  way  to  the  new  province  on  land.  But 
the  land  was  covered  with  mountains  and*  dense 
forests,  the  only  route  to  its  interior  for  them  was  the 
violent,  almost  boiling,  Fraser  River,  and  there  was 
nothing  on  which  the  lives  of  this  horde  of  men  could 
be  sustained.  By  the  end  of  the  year  out  of  nearly 
thirty  thousand  adventurers  only  a  tenth  part  re- 
mained. Those  who  did  stay  worked  the  river  bars  of 
the  lower  Fraser  until  in  five  months  they  had  shipped 
from  Victoria  more  than  half  a  million  dollars'  worth 
of  gold.  From  a  historical  point  of  view  it  is  a  pe- 
culiar coincidence  that  in  1859,  when  the  attention 
of  the  world  was  thus  first  attracted  to  this  new 
countr3%  the  charter  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  ex- 
pired, and  the  territory  passed  from  its  control  to  be- 
come like  any  other  crown  colony. 

In  1S60  the  gold-miners,  seeking  the  source  of  the 
"flour"  gold  they  found  in  such  abundance  in  the  bed 


266 


ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 


of  the  river,  pursued  their  search  into  the  heart  and 
ahiiost  the  centre  of  that  forbidding  and  unbroken  ter- 
ritory. The  Ouesnel  River  became  the  seat  of  their 
operations.  Two  years  later  came  another  extraordi- 
nary immigration.  This  was  not  surprising,  for  1500 
miners  had  in  one  year  (1861)  taken  out  $2,000,000 


/I 


INDIAN    SALMON-FISHING    IN    THE   THRASHER 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  26/ 

in  gold-dust  from  certain  creeks  in  what  is  called  the 
Cariboo  District,  and  one  can  imagine  (if  one  does 
not  remember)  what  fabulous  tales  were  based  upon 
this  fact.  The  second  stampede  was  of  persons  from 
all  over  the  world,  but  chiefly  from  England,  Cana- 
da, Australia,  and  New  Zealand.  After  that  there 
were  new  "finds"  almost  every  year,  and  the  miners 
worked  gradually  northward  until,  about  1874,  they 
had  travelled  through  the  province,  in  at  one  end 
and  out  at  the  other,  and  were  working  the  tribu- 
taries of  the  Yukon  River  in  the  north,  beyond  the 
60th  parallel.  Mr.  Dawson  estimates  that  the  total 
yield  of  gold  between  1858  and  1888  was  $54,108,804; 
the  average  number  of  miners  employed  each  year 
was  2775,  and  the  average  earnings  per  man  per 
year  were  $622. 

In  his  report,  published  by  order  of  Parliament,  Mr. 
Dawson  says  that  while  gold  is  so  generally  distrib- 
uted over  the  province  that  scarcely  a  stream  of  any 
importance  fails  to  show  at  least  "colors"  of  the 
metal,  the  principal  discoveries  clearly  indicate  that 
the  most  important  mining  districts  are  in  the  sys- 
tems of  mountains  and  high  plateaus  lying  to  the 
south-west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  parallel  in 
direction  with  them. 

This  mountain  system  next  to  and  south-west  of 
the  Rockies  is  called,  for  convenience,  the  Gold 
Range,  but  it  comprises  a  complex  belt  "of  several 
more  or  less  distinct  and  partly  overlapping  ranges  " 
— the  Purcell,  Selkirk,  and  Columbia  ranges  in  the 
south,  and  in  the  north  the  Cariboo,  Omenica,  and 
Cassiar  ranges.     "This  series  or  system  constitutes 


268  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

the  most  important  metalliferous  belt  of  the  province. 
The  richest  gold  fields  are  closely  related  to  it,  and 
discoveries  of  metalliferous  lodes  are  reported  in 
abundance  from  all  parts  of  it  which  have  been  ex- 
plored. The  deposits  already  made  known  are  very 
varied  in  character,  including  highly  argentiferous 
galenas  and  other  silver  ores  and  auriferous  quartz 
veins."  This  same  authority  asserts  that  the  Gold 
Range  is  continued  by  the  Cabinet,  Coeur  d'Alene, 
and  Bitter  Root  mountains  in  our  country.  While 
there  is  no  single  well-developed  gold  field  as  in  Cali- 
fornia, the  extent  of  territory  of  a  character  to  occa- 
sion a  hopeful  search  for  gold  is  greater  in  the  prov- 
ince than  in  California.  The  average  man  of  business 
to  whom  visitors  speak  of  the  mining  prospects  of  the 
province  is  apt  to  declare  that  all  that  has  been  lack- 
ing is  the  discovery  of  one  grand  mine  and  the  en- 
listment of  capital  (from  the  United  States,  they  gen- 
erally say)  to  work  it.  Mr.  Dawson  speaks  to  the 
same  point,  and  incidentally  accounts  for  the  retarded 
development  in  his  statement  that  one  noteworthy 
difference  between  practically  the  entire  area  of  the 
province  and  that  of  the  Pacific  States  has  been  oc- 
casioned by  the  spread  and  movement  of  ice  over  the 
province  during  the  glacial  period.  This  produced 
changes  in  the  distribution  of  surface  materials  and 
directions  of  drainage,  concealed  beneath  "drifts "the 
indications  to  which  prospectors  farther  south  are  used 
to  trust,  and  by  other  means  obscured  the  outcrops  of 
veins  which  would  otherwise  be  well  marked.  The 
dense  woods,  the  broken  navigation  of  the  rivers,  in 
detached  reaches,  the  distance  from  the  coast  of  the 


«\\™\\vMi\\aiiii!iimm(;'i(iiiiwiii(iii'i!iiii''r  i '  '.„      ''umiilWiln 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  2/1 

richest  districts,  and  the  cost  of  labor  supplies  and  ma- 
chinery— all  these  are  additional  and  weighty  reasons 
for  the  slowness  of  development.  But  this  was  true  of 
the  past  and  is  not  of  the  present,  at  least  so  far  as 
southern  British  Columbia  is  concerned.  Railroads  are 
reaching  up  into  it  from  our  country  and  down  from 
the  transcontinental  Canadian  Railway,  and  capital, 
both  Canadian  and  American,  is  rapidly  swelling  an 
already  heavy  investment  in  many  new  and  promising 
mines.  Here  it  is  silver- minino^  that  is  achievino: 
importance. 

Other  ores  are  found  in  the  province.  The  iron 
which  has  been  located  or  worked  is  principally  on 
the  islands — Queen  Charlotte,  Vancouver,  Texada, 
and  the  Walker  group.  Most  of  the  ores  are  mag- 
netites, and  that  which  alone  has  been  worked  —  on 
Texada  Island — is  of  excellent  quality.  The  output 
of  copper  from  the  province  is  likely  soon  to  become 
considerable.  Masses  of  it  have  been  found  from 
time  to  time  in  various  parts  of  the  province — in  the 
Vancouver  series  of  islands,  on  the  main-land  coast, 
and  in  the  interior.  Its  constant  and  rich  association 
with  silver  shows  lead  to  be  abundant  in  the  countr3^ 
but  it  needs  the  development  of  transport  facilities  to 
give  it  value.  Platinum  is  more  likely  to  attain  im- 
portance as  a  product  in  this  than  in  any  other  part 
of  North  America.  On  the  coast  the  granites  are  of 
such  quality  and  occur  in  such  abundance  as  to  lead 
to  the  belief  that  their  quarrying  will  one  day  be  an 
important  source  of  income,  and  there  are  marbles, 
sandstones,  and  ornamental  stones  of  which  the  same 
may  be  said. 


■/- 


ON.  CANADA  S    FRONTIER 


One  of  the  most  valuable  products  of  the  province 
is  coal,  the  essential  in  which  our  Pacific  coast  States 
are  the  poorest.  The  white  man's  attention  was  first 
attracted  to  this  coal  in  1835  by  some  Indians  who 
brought  lumps  of  it  from  Vancouver  Island  to  the 
Hudson  Bay  post  on  the  main-land,  at  Milbank  Sound. 
The  Beaver^  the  first  steamship  that  stirred  the  waters 
of  the  Pacific,  reached  the  province  in  1836,  and  used 
coal  that  was  found  in  outcroppings  on  the  island 
beach.  Thirteen  years  later  the  great  trading  com- 
pany brought  out  a  Scotch  coal-miner  to  look  into 
the  character  and  extent  of  the  coal  find,  and  he  was 
followed  by  other  miners  and  the  necessary  apparatus 
for  prosecuting  the  inquiry.  In  the  mean  time  the 
present  chief  source  of  supply  at  Nanaimo,  seventy 
miles  from  Victoria  and  about  opposite  Vancouver, 
was  discovered,  and  in  1852  mining  was  begun  in 
earnest.  From  the  very  outset  the  chief  market  for 
the  coal  was  found  to  be  San  Francisco. 

The  original  mines  are  now  owned  by  the  Van- 
couver Coal-mining  and  Land  Company.  Near  them 
are  the  Wellington  Mines,  which  began  to  be  worked 
in  1871.  Both  have  continued  in  active  operation 
from  their  foundation,  and  with  a  constantly  and 
rapidly  growing  output.  A  third  source  of  supply 
has  very  recently  been  established  with  local  and 
American  capital  in  what  is  called  the  Comox  Dis- 
trict, back  of  Baynes  Sound,  farther  north  than 
Nanaimo,  on  the  eastern  side  of  Vancouver  Island. 
These  new  works  are  called  the  Union  Mines,  and,  if 
the  predictions  of  my  informants  prove  true,  will  pro- 
duce an  output  equal  to  that  of  the  older  Nanaimo 


Canada's  el  dorado  273 

collieries  combined.  In  1884  the  coal  shipped  from 
Nanaimo  amounted  to  1000  tons  for  every  day  of  the 
year,  and  in  1889  the  total  shipment  had  reached 
500,000  tons.  As  to  the  character  of  the  coal,  I  quote 
again  from  Mr.  Dawson's  report  on  the  minerals  of 
British  Columbia,  published  by  the  Dominion  Govern- 
ment: 

"  Rocks  of  cretaceous  age  are  developed  over  a  considerable  area 
in  British  Columbia,  often  in  very  great  thickness,  and  fuels  occur  in 
them  in  important  quantity  in  at  least  two  distinct  stages,  of  which 
the  lower  and  older  includes  the  coal  measures  of  the  Queen  Char- 
lotte Islands  and  those  of  Quatsino  Sound  on  Vancouver  Island,  with 
those  of  Crow  Nest  Pass  in  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  the  upper,  the 
coal  measures  of  Nanaimo  and  Comox,  and  probably  also  those  of 
Suquash  and  other  localities.  The  lower  rocks  hold  both  anthracite 
and  bituminous  coal  in  the  Queen  Charlotte  Islands,  but  elsewhere 
contain  bituminous  coal  only.  The  upper  have  so  far  been  found  to 
yield  bituminous  coal  only.  The  fuels  of  the  tertiary  rocks  are,  gen- 
erally speaking,  lignites,  but  include  also  various  fuels  intermediate 
between  these  and  true  coals,  which  in  a  few  places  become  true 
bituminous  coals." 

It  is  thought  to  be  more  than  likely  that  the  Co- 
mox District  may  prove  far  more  productive  than  the 
Nanaimo  region.  It  is  estimated  that  productive 
measures  underlie  at  least  300  square  miles  in  the 
Comox  District,  exclusive  of  what  may  extend  beyond 
the  shore.  The  Nanaimo  area  is  estimated  at  200 
square  miles,  and  the  product  is  no  better  than,  if  it 
equals,  that  of  the  Comox  District. 

Specimens  of  good  coal  have  been  found  on  the 
main-land  in  the  region  of  the  upper  Skeena  River, 
on  the  British  Columbia  water-shed  of  the  Rockies 
near  Crow  Nest  Pass,  and  in  the  country  adjacent  to 
the  Peace  River  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  province. 


274  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

Anthracite  which  compares  favorably  with  that  of 
Pennsylvania  has  been  found  at  Cowgitz,  Queen 
Charlotte  Islands.  In  1871  a  mining  company  began 
work  upon  this  coal,  but  abandoned  it,  owing  to  dififi- 
culties  that  were  encountered.  It  is  now  believed 
that  these  miners  did  not  prove  the  product  to  be  of 
an  unprofitable  character,  and  that  farther  explora- 
tion is  fully  justified  by  what  is  known  of  the  field. 
Of  inferior  forms  of  coal  there  is  every  indication  of 
an  abundance  on  the  main-land  of  the  province.  "  The 
tertiary  or  Laramie  coal  measures  of  Puget  Sound 
and  Bellingham  Bay"  (in  the  United  States)  "  are  con- 
tinuous north  of  the  international  boundary,  and  must 
underlie  nearly  18,000  square  miles  of  the  low  coun- 
try about  the  estuary  of  the  Fraser  and  in  the  lower 
part  of  its  valley."  It  is  quite  possible,  since  the 
better  coals  of  Nanaimo  and  Comox  are  in  demand 
in  the  San  Francisco  market,  even  at  their  high  price 
and  with  the  duty  added,  that  these  lignite  fields  may 
be  worked  for  local  consumption. 

Already  the  value  of  the  fish  caught  in  the  British 
Columbian  waters  is  estimated  at  ^5,000,000  a  year, 
and  yet  the  industry  is  rather  at  its  birth  than  in  its 
infancy.  All  the  waters  in  and  near  the  province 
fairly  swarm  with  fish.  The  rivers  teem  with  them, 
the  straits  and  fiords  and  gulfs  abound  with  them, 
the  ocean  beyond  is  freighted  with  an  incalculable 
weio^ht  of  livins:  food,  which  must  soon  be  distributed 
among  the  homes  of  the  civilized  world.  The  prin- 
cipal varieties  of  fish  are  the  salmon,  cod,  shad,  white- 
fish,  bass,  flounder,  skate,  sole,  halibut,  sturgeon, 
oolachan,  herring,  trout,  haddock,  smelts,  anchovies. 


.W'^MM. 


^-H'r^ 


I ,,    -..- 


A- 


THE   SALMON    CACHE 


;^^. 


dog-fish,  perch,  sardines,  oysters,  crayfish  shrimps, 
crabs,  and  mussels.  Of  other  denizens  of  the  water, 
the  whale,  sea-otter,  and  seal  prove  rich  prey  for  those 
who  search  for  them. 

The  main  salmon  rivers  are  the  Fraser,  Skeena, 
and  Nasse  rivers,  but  the  fish  also  swarm  in  the  inlets 
into  which  smaller  streams  empty.      The  Nimkish, 


276  ON  Canada's  frontier 

on  Vancouver  Island, is  also  a  salmon  stream.  Setting 
aside  the  stories  of  water  so  thick  with  salmon  that 
a  man  might  walk  upon  their  backs,  as  well  as  that 
tale  of  the  stage-coach  which  was  upset  by  salmon 
bankino^  themselves  asfainst  it  when  it  was  crossino;  a 
fording-place,  there  still  exist  absolutely  trustworthy 
accounts  of  swarms  which  at  their  height  cause  the 
largest  rivers  to  seem  alive  with  these  fish.  In  such 
cases  the  ripple  of  their  back  fins  frets  the  entire 
surface  of  the  stream.  I  have  seen  photographs  that 
show  the  fish  in  incredible  numbers,  side  by  side,  like 
logs  in  a  raft,  and  I  have  the  word  of  a  responsible 
man  for  the  statement  that  he  has  gotten  all  the 
salmon  needed  for  a  small  camp,  day  after  day,  by 
walking  to  the  edge  of  a  river  and  jerking  the  fish 
out  with  a  common  poker. 

There  are  about  sixteen  canneries  on  the  Fraser, 
six  on  the  Skeena,  three  on  the  Nasse,  and  three 
scattered  in  other  waters — River  Inlet  and  Alert  Bay. 
The  total  canning  in  1889  was  414,294  cases,  each 
of  48  one-pound  tins.  The  fish  are  sold  to  Europe, 
Australia,  and  eastern  Canada.  The  American  market 
takes  the  Columbia  River  salmon.  A  round  ^1,000,000 
is  invested  in  the  vessels,  nets,  trawls,  canneries,  oil- 
factories,  and  freezing  and  salting  stations  used  in 
this  industry  in  British  Columbia,  and  about  5500  men 
are  employed.  "  There  is  no  difficulty  in  catching 
the  fish,"  says  a  local  historian,  "  for  in  some  streams 
they  are  so  crowded  that  they  can  readily  be  picked 
out  of  the  water  by  hand."  However,  gill-nets  are 
found  to  be  preferable,  and  the  fish  are  caught  in 
these,  which  are  stretched   across  the  streams,  and 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  277 

handled  by  men  in  flat-bottomed  boats.  The  fish  are 
loaded  into  scows  and  transported  to  the  canneries, 
usually  frame  structures  built  upon  piles  close  to  the 
shores  of  the  rivers.  In  the  canneries  the  tins  are 
made,  and,  as  a  rule,  saw-mills  near  by  produce  the 
wood  for  the  manufacture  of  the  packing-cases.  The 
fish  are  cleaned,  rid  of  their  heads  and  tails,  and  then 
chopped  up  and  loaded  into  the  tins  by  Chinamen 
and  Indian  women.  The  tins  are  then  boiled,  solder- 
ed, tested,  packed,  and  shipped  away.  The  industry 
is  rapidly  extending,  and  fresh  salmon  are  now  being 
shipped,  frozen,  to  the  markets  of  eastern  America 
and  England.  My  figures  for  1889  (obtained  from 
the  Victoria  Times)  are  in  all  likelihood  under  the 
mark  for  the  season  of  1890.  The  coast  is  made  rag- 
ged by  inlets,  and  into  nearly  every  one  a  water- 
course empties.  All  the  larger  streams  are  the  haven 
of  salmon  in  the  spawning  season,  and  in  time  the 
principal  ones  will  be  the  bases  of  canning  operations. 
The  Dominion  Government  has  founded  a  salmon 
hatchery  on  the  Fraser,  above  New  Westminster.  It 
is  under  the  supervision  of  Thomas  Mowat,  Inspector 
of  Fisheries,  and  millions  of  small  fry  are  now  annu- 
allv  turned  into  the  grreat  river.  Whether  the  unex- 
ampled  run  of  1889  was  in  any  part  due  to  this  proc- 
ess cannot  be  said,  but  certainly  the  salmon  are  not 
diniinishing  in  numbers.  It  was  feared  that  the  ref- 
use from  the  canneries  would  injure  the  "  runs"  of 
live  fish,  but  it  is  now  believed  that  there  is  a  profit 
to  be  derived  from  treating  the  refuse  for  oil  and 
guano,  so  that  it  is  more  likely  to  be  saved  than 
thrown  back  into  the  streams  in  the  near  future. 


2/8  ON  Canada's  frontier 

The  oolachan,  or  candle-fish,  is  a  valuable  product 
of  these  waters,  chiefly  of  the  Fraser  and  Nasse 
rivers.  They  are  said  to  be  delicious  when  fresh, 
smoked,  or  salted,  and  I  have  it  on  the  authority  of 
the  little  pamphlet  "  British  Columbia,"  handed  me 
by  a  government  official,  that  "  their  oil  is  considered 
superior  to  cod-liver  oil,  or  any  other  fish-oil  known,'* 
It  is  said  that  this  oil  is  whitish,  and  of  the  con- 
sistency of  thin  lard.  It  is  used  as  food  by  the  na- 
tives, and  is  an  article  of  barter  between  the  coast 
Indians  and  the  tribes  of  the  interior.  There  is  so 
much  of  it  in  a  candle-fish  of  ordinary  size  that  when 
one  of  them  is  dried,  it  will  burn  like  a  candle.  It 
is  the  custom  of  the  natives  on  the  coast  to  catch 
the  fish  in  immense  numbers  in  purse-nets.  They 
then  boil  them  in  iron -bottomed  bins,  straining  the 
product  in  willow  baskets,  and  running  the  oil  into 
cedar  boxes  holding  fifteen  gallons  each.  The  Nasse 
River  candle -fish  are  the  best.  Thev  bes^in  runninor 
in  March,  and  continue  to  come  by  the  million  for  a 
period  of  several  weeks. 

Codfish  are  supposed  to  be  very  plentiful,  and  to 
frequent  extensive  banks  at  sea,  but  these  shoals  have 
not  been  explored  or  charted  by  the  Government, 
and  private  enterprise  will  not  attempt  the  work. 
Similar  banks  off  the  Alaska  coast  are  already  the 
resorts  of  California  fishermen,  who  drive  a  prosper- 
ous trade  in  saltinQr  laro^e  catches  there.  The  skil,  or 
black  cod,  formerly  known  as  the  "coal -fish,"  is  a 
splendid  deep-water  product.  These  cod  weigh  from 
eight  to  twenty  pounds,  and  used  to  be  caught  by 
the  Indians  with  hook  and  line.     Already  white  men 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  279 

are  driving  the  Indians  out  by  superior  methods. 
Trawls  of  300  hooks  are  used,  and  the  fish  are  found 
to  be  plentiful,  especially  off  the  west  coast  of  the 
Queen  Charlotte  Islands.  The  fish  is  described  as 
superior  to  the  cod  of  Newfoundland  in  both  oil  and 
meat.  The  general  market  is  not  yet  accustomed  to 
it,  but  such  a  ready  sale  is  found  for  what  are  caught 
that  the  number  of  vessels  engaged  in  this  fishing  in- 
creases year  by  year.  It  is  evident  that  the  catch  of 
skil  will  soon  be  an  important  source  of  revenue  to 
the  province. 


.^ ,      ■"■  % 


AN    IDEAL   OF   THE    COAST 


Herring  are  said  to  be  plentiful,  but  no  fleet  is  yet 
fitted  out  for  them.  Halibut  are  numerous  and  com- 
mon. They  are  often  of  very  great  size.  Sturgeon 
are  found  in  the  Fraser,  whither  they  chase  the  sal- 
mon. One  weighing  1400  pounds  was  exhibited  in 
Victoria  a  few  years  ago,  and  those  that  weigh  more 
than  half  as  much  are  not  unfrequently  captured. 
The  following  is  a  report  of  the  yield  and  value  of 
the  fisheries  of  the  province  for  1889: 


280 


ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 


Kind  of  Fish. 


Quantity. 


Value. 


Salmon  in  cans lbs 

fresh lbs 

salted bbls 

smoked lbs. 

Sturgeon,  fresh 

Halibut,        "      

Herring,        "       

smoked 

Oolachans,   "         

fresh 

salted bbls 

Trout,  fresh lbs. 

Fish,  assorted 

Smelts,  fresh 

Rock  cod 

Skil,  salted    bbls. 

Fooshqua,  fresh 

Fur  seal-skins No. 

Hair      "  " 

Sea-otter  skins " 

Fish  oil gals. 

Oysters sacks 

Clams 

Mussels " 

Crabs No. 

Abelones boxes 

Isinglass lbs. 

Estimated  fish  consumed  in  prov- 
ince     

Shrimps,  prawns,  etc 

Estimated    consumption    by    Ind- 
ians— 

Salmon 

Halibut 

Sturgeon  and  other  fish  .  .  . 
Fish  oils 


Approximate  yield , 


20,122,128 
2,187.000 

3.749 

12,900 

318,600 

605,050 

1 90,000 

33,000 

82,500 

6,700 

380 

14,025 

322,725 

52,100 

39,250 

1,560 

268,350 

33.570 
7,000 

115 

141,420 

3,000 

3,500 

250 

175,000 

100 

5,000 


^2,414,655  36 

218,700  00 

37,460  00 

2,580  00 

15,930  00 

30,152  50 

9,500  00 

3,300  00 

8,250  00 

1,340  00 

3,800  00 

1,402  50 

16,136  25 

3,126  00 

1,962  50 

18,720  00 

13,417  50 

335,700  00 

5,250  00 

1 1,500  00 

70,710  00 

5,250  00 

6,125  00 

500  00 

5,250  00 

500  00 

1,750  00 

100,000  00 
5,000  00 


2,732,500  00 

190,000  00 

260,000  00 

75,000  00 


5,605,467  61 


When  it  is  considered  that  this  is  the  showing  of 
one  of  the  newest  communities  on  the  continent, 
numbering  only  the  population  of  what  we  would 
call  a  small  city,  suffering  for  want  of  capital  and 
nearly  all   that   capital   brings    with    it,  there    is    no 


Canada's  el  dorado  281 

longer  occasion  for  surprise  at  the  provincial  boast 
that  they  possess  far  more  extensive  and  richer  fish- 
ing-fields than  any  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  Time  and 
enterprise  will  surely  test  this  assertion,  but  it  is  al- 
ready evident  that  there  is  a  vast  revenue  to  be 
wrested  from  those  waters. 

I  have  not  spoken  of  the  sealing,  which  yielded 
$236,000  in  1887,  and  may  yet  be  decided  to  be  ex- 
clusively an  American  and  not  a  British  Columbian 
source  of  profit.  Nor  have  I  touched  upon  the  ex- 
traction of  oil  from  herrings  and  from  dog-fish  and 
whales,  all  of  which  are  small  channels  of  revenue. 

I  enjoyed  the  good-fortune  to  talk  at  length  with  a 
civil  engineer  of  high  repute  who  has  explored  the 
greater  part  of  southern  British  Columbia — at  least 
in  so  far  as  its  main  valleys,  waterways,  trails,  and 
mountain  passes  are  concerned.  Having  learned  not 
to  place  too  high  a  value  upon  the  printed  matter 
put  forth  in  praise  of  any  new  country,  I  was  espe- 
cially pleased  to  obtain  this  man's  practical  impres- 
sions concerning  the  store  and  quality  and  kinds  of 
timber  the  province  contains.  He  said,  not  to  use 
his  own  words,  that  timber  is  found  all  the  way  back 
from  the  coast  to  the  Rockies,  but  it  is  in  its  most 
plentiful  and  majestic  forms  on  the  west  slope  of 
those  mountains  and  on  the  west  slope  of  the  Coast 
Range.  The  very  largest  trees  are  between  the 
Coast  Range  and  the  coast.  The  country  between 
the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Coast  Range  is  dry  by 
comparison  with  the  parts  where  the  timber  thrives 
best,  and,  naturally,  the  forests  are  inferior.  Between 
the  Rockies  and  the  Kootenay  River  cedar  and  tam- 


282  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

aracks  reach  six  and  eight  feet  in  diameter,  and  at- 
tain a  height  of  200  feet  not  infrequently.  There 
are  two  or  three  kinds  of  fir  and  some  pines  (though 
not  very  many)  in  this  region.  There  is  very  httle 
leaf-wood,  and  no  hard-wood.  Maples  are  found,  to 
be  sure,  but  they  are  rather  more  like  bushes  than 
trees  to  the  British  Columbian  mind.  As  one  moves 
westward  the  same  timber  prevails,  but  it  grows 
shorter  and  smaller  until  the  low  coast  country  is 
reached.  There,  as  has  been  said,  the  giant  forests 
occur  again.  This  coast  region  is  largely  a  flat 
country,  but  there  are  not  many  miles  of  it. 

To  this  rule,  as  here  laid  down,  there  are  some  not- 
able exceptions.  One  particular  tree,  called  there 
the  bull-pine — it  is  the  pine  of  Lake  Superior  and 
the  East — grows  to  great  size  all  over  the  province. 
It  is  a  common  thing  to  find  the  trunks  of  these 
trees  measuring  four  feet  in  diameter,  or  nearly  thir- 
teen feet  in  circumference.  It  is  not  especially  valu- 
able for  timber,  because  it  is  too  sappy.  It  is  short- 
lived when  exposed  to  the  weather,  and  is  therefore 
not  in  demand  for  railroad  work;  but  for  the  ordinary 
uses  to  which  builders  put  timber  it  answers  very 
well. 

There  is  a  maple  which  attains  great  size  at  the 
coast,  and  which,  when  dressed,  closely  resembles 
bird's-eye-maple.  It  is  called  locally  the  vine -maple. 
The  trees  are  found  with  a  diameter  of  two-and-a 
half  to  three  feet,  but  the  trunks  seldom  rise  above 
forty  or  fifty  feet.  The  wood  is  crooked.  It  runs 
very  badly.  This,  of  course,  is  what  gives  it  the 
beautiful  grain  it  possesses,  and  which  must,  sooner 


Biuuiilumu  III  Jill   jLL 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  285 

or  later,  find  a  ready  market  for  it.  There  is  plenty 
of  hemlock  in  the  province,  but  it  is  nothing  like  so 
large  as  that  which  is  found  in  the  East,  and  its  bark 
is  not  so  thick.  Its  size  renders  it  serviceable  for 
nothing  larger  than  railway  ties,  and  the  trees  grow 
in  such  inaccessible  places,  half-way  up  the  mount- 
ains, that  it  is  for  the  most  part  unprofitable  to 
handle  it.  The  red  cedars — the  wood  of  which  is  con- 
sumed in  the  manufacture  of  pencils  and  cigar-boxes 
— are  also  small.  On  the  other  hand,  the  white  cedar 
reaches  enormous  sizes,  up  to  fifteen  feet  of  thick- 
ness at  the  base,  very  often.  It  is  not  at  all  extraor- 
dinary to  find  these  cedars  reaching  200  feet  above 
the  ground,  and  one  was  cut  at  Port  Moody,  in  clear- 
ing the  way  for  the  railroad,  that  had  a  length  of  310 
feet.  When  fire  rages  in  the  provincial  forests,  the 
wood  of  these  trees  is  what  is  consumed,  and  usually 
the  trunks,  hollow  and  empty,  stand  grimly  in  their 
places  after  the  fire  would  otherwise  have  been  for- 
gotten. These  great  tubes  are  often  of  such  dimen- 
sions that  men  put  windows  and  doors  in  them  and 
use  them  for  dwellings.  In  the  valleys  are  immense 
numbers  of  poplars  of  the  common  and  Cottonwood 
species,  white  birch,  alder,  willow,  and  yew  trees,  but 
they  are  not  estimated  in  the  forest  wealth  of  the 
province,  because  of  the  expense  that  marketing 
them  would  entail. 

This  fact  concerning  the  small  timber  indicates  at 
once  the  primitive  character  of  the  country,  and  the 
vast  wealth  it  possesses  in  what  might  be  called  heroic 
timber — that  is,  sufficiently  valuable  to  force  its  way 
to  market  even  from  out  that  unopened  wilderness.. 


286  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

It  was  the  opinion  of  the  engineer  to  whom  I  have 
referred  that  timber  land  which  does  not  attract  the 
second  glance  of  a  prospector  in  British  Columbia 
would  be  considered  of  the  first  importance  in  Maine 
and  New  Brunswick.  To  put  it  in  another  wa}',  river- 
side timber  land  which  in  those  countries  would  fetch 
fifty  dollars  the  acre  solely  for  its  wood,  in  British 
Columbia  would  not  be  taken  up.  In  time  it  may 
be  cut,  undoubtedly  it  must  be,  when  new  railroads 
alter  its  value,  and  therefore  it  is  impossible  even 
roughly  to  estimate  the  value  of  the  provincial  forests. 
A  great  business  is  carried  on  in  the  shipment  of 
ninety-foot  and  one-hundred-foot  Douglas  fir  sticks  to 
the  great  car-building  works  of  our  country  and  Can- 
ada. They  are  used  in  the  massive  bottom  frames  of 
palace  cars.  The  only  limit  that  has  yet  been  reach- 
ed in  this  industry  is  not  in  the  size  of  the  logs,  but 
in  the  capacities  of  the  saw-mills,  and  in  the  possibil- 
ities of  transportation  by  rail,  for  these  logs  require 
three  cars  to  support  their  length.  Except  for  the  val- 
leys, the  whole  vast  country  is  enormously  rich  in  this 
timber,  the  mountains  (excepting  the  Rockies)  being 
clothed  with  it  from  their  bases  to  their  tops.  Vancou- 
ver Island  is  a  heavily  and  valuably  timbered  country. 
It  bears  the  same  trees  as  the  main-land,  except  that  it 
has  the  oak-tree,  and  does  not  possess  the  tamarack. 
The  Vancouver  Island  oaks  do  not  exceed  two  or 
two-and-a-half  feet  in  diameter.  The  Douglas  fir 
(our  Oregon  pine)  grows  to  tremendous  proportions, 
especially  on  the  north  end  of  the  island.  In  the  old 
offices  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  at  Vancouver 
are  panels  of  this  wood  that  are  thirteen  feet  across, 


CANADA  S    EL    DORADO  28/ 

showing  that  they  came  from  a  tree  whose  trunk  was 
forty  feet  in  circumference.  Tens  of  thousands  of 
these  firs  are  from  eight  to  ten  feet  in  diameter  at  the 
bottom. 

Other  trees  of  the  province  are  the  great  silver-fir, 
the  wood  of  which  is  not  very  valuable;  Englemann's 
spruce,  which  is  very  like  white  spruce,  and  is  very 
abundant ;  balsam-spruce,  often  exceeding  two  feet  in 
diameter;  the  yellow  or  pitch  pine;  white  pine;  yellow 
cypress;  crab-apple,  occurring  as  a  small  tree  or 
shrub;  western  birch,  common  in  the  Columbia  re- 
gion ;  paper  or  canoe  birch,  found  sparingly  on  Van- 
couver Island  and  on  the  lower  Eraser,  but  in  abun- 
dance and  of  large  size  in  the  Peace  River  and  upper 
Fraser  regions  ;  dogwood,  arbutus,  and  several  minor 
trees.  Among  the  shrubs  which  grow  in  abundance 
in  various  districts  or  all  over  the  province  are  the 
following :  hazel,  red  elder,  willow,  barberry,  wild  red 
cherry,  blackberry,  yellow  plum,  choke-cherry,  rasp- 
berry, gooseberr3^  bearberry,  currant,  and  snowberry, 
mooseberry,  bilberry,  cranberry,  whortleberry,  mul- 
berry, and  blueberry. 

I  would  have  liked  to  write  at  length  concerning 
the  enterprising  cities  of  the  province,  but,  after  all, 
they  may  be  trusted  to  make  themselves  known.  It 
is  the  region  behind  them  which  most  interests 
mankind,  and  the  Government  has  begun,  none  too 
promptly,  a  series  of  expeditions  for  exploiting  it.  As 
for  the  cities,  the  chief  among  them  and  the  capital,  Vic- 
toria, has  an  estimated  population  of  22,000.  Its  busi- 
ness district  wears  a  prosperous,  solid,  and  attractive 
appearance,  and  its  detached  dwellings — all  of  frame, 


288  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

and  of  the  distinctive  type  which  marks  the  houses  of 
the  California  towns — are  surrounded  by  gardens.  It 
has  a  beautiful  but  inadequate  harbor;  yet  in  a  few 
years  it  will  have  spread  to  Esquimault,  now  less  than 
two  miles  distant.  This  is  now  the  seat  of  a  British 
admiralty  station,  and  has  a  splendid  haven,  whose 
water  is  of  a  depth  of  from  six  to  eight  fathoms.  At 
Esquimault  are  governme  nt  offices,  churches,  schools, 
hotels,  stores,  a  naval  "  canteen,"  and  a  dry-dock  450 
feet  long,  26  feet  deep,  and  65  feet  wide  at  its  en- 
trance. The  electric  street  railroad  of  Victoria  was 
extended  to  Esquimault  in  the  autumn  of  1890.  Of 
the  climate  of  Victoria  Lord  Lome  said,  "  It  is  softer 
and  more  constant  than  that  of  the  south  of  Eng- 
land." 

Vancouver,  the  principal  city  of  the  main-land,  is 
slightly  smaller  than  Victoria,  but  did  not  begin  to 
displace  the  forest  until  1886.  After  that  every 
house  except  one  was  destroyed  by  fire.  To-day  it 
boasts  a  hotel  comparable  in  most  important  respects 
with  any  in  Canada,  many  noble  business  buildings 
of  brick  or  stone,  good  schools,  fine  churches,  a  really 
great  area  of  streets  built  up  with  dwellings,  and  a 
notable  system  of  wharves,  warehouses,  etc.  The 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway  terminates  here,  and  so 
does  the  line  of  steamers  for  China  and  Japan.  The 
city  is  picturesquely  and  healthfully  situated  on  an 
arm  of  Burrard  Inlet,  has  gas,  water,  electric  lights, 
and  shows  no  sign  of  halting  its  hitherto  rapid  growth. 
Of  New  Westminster,  Nanaimo,  Yale,  and  the  still 
smaller  towns,  there  is  not  opportunity  here  for  more 
than  naming. 


Canada's  el  dorado  289 

In  the  original  settlements  in  that  territory  a  pecul- 
iar institution  occasioned  gala  times  for  the  red  men 
now  and  then.  This  was  the  "potlatch,"  a  thing  to 
us  so  foreign,  even  in  the  impulse  of  which  it  is  be- 
gotten, that  we  have  no  word  or  phrase  to  give  its 
meaning.  It  is  a  feast  and  merrymaking  at  the  ex- 
pense of  some  man  who  has  earned  or  saved  what  he 
deems  considerable  wealth,  and  who  desires  to  dis- 
tribute every  iota  of  it  at  once  in  edibles  and  drink- 
ables among  the  people  of  his  tribe  or  village.  He 
does  this  because  he  aspires  to  a  chieftainship,  or 
merely  for  the  credit  of  a  "potlatch  " — a  high  distinc- 
tion. Indians  have  been  known  to  throw  away  such 
a  sum  of  money  that  their  "potlatch"  has  been  given 
in  a  huge  shed  built  for  the  feast,  that  hundreds  have 
been  both  fed  and  made  drunk,  and  that  blankets  and 
ornaments  have  been  distributed  in  addition  to  the 
feast. 

The  custom  has  a  new  significance  now.  It  is  the 
white  man  who  is  to  enjoy  a  greater  than  all  previous 
potlatches  in  that  region.  The  treasure  has  been 
garnered  during  the  ages  by  time  or  nature  or  what- 
soever you  may  call  the  host,  and  the  province  itself 
is  offered  as  the  feast. 

19 


IX 

DAN  Dunn's  outfit 

AT  Revelstoke,  380  miles  from  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
in  British  Columbia,  a  small  white  steamboat, 
built  on  the  spot,  and  exposing  a  single  great  paddle- 
wheel  at  her  stern,  was  waiting  to  make  another  of  her 
still  few  trips  through  a  wilderness  that,  but  for  her 
presence,  would  be  as  completely  primitive  as  almost 
any  in  North  America.  Her  route  lay  down  the 
Columbia  River  a  distance  of  about  one  hundred 
and  thirty  miles  to  a  point  called  Sproat's  Landing, 
where  some  rapids  interrupt  navigation.  The  main 
load  upon  the  steamer  s  deck  was  of  steel  rails  for  a 
railroad  that  was  building  into  a  new  mining  region 
in  what  is  called  the  Kootenay  District,  just  north  of 
our  Washington  and  Idaho.  The  sister  range  to  the 
Rockies,  called  the  Selkirks,  was  to  be  crossed  by  the 
new  highway,  which  would  then  connect  the  valley  of 
the  Columbia  with  the  Kootenay  River.  There  was 
a  temptation  beyond  the  mere  chance  to  join  the  first 
throng  that  pushed  open  a  gateway  and  began  the 
breaking  of  a  trail  in  a  brand-new  country.  There 
was  to  be  witnessed  the  propulsion  of  civilization  be- 
yond old  confines  by  steam-power,  and  this  required 
railroad  building  in  the  Rockies,  where  that  science 
finds  its  most  formidable  problems.  And  around  and 
through  all  that  was  being  done  pressed  a  new  popu- 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT  29 1 

lation,  made  up  of  many  of  the  elements  that  pro- 
duced our  old-time  border  life,  and  gave  birth  to  some 
of  the  most  picturesque  and  exciting  chapters  in 
American  History. 

It  should  be  understood  that  here  in  the  very  heart 
of  British  Columbia  only  the  watercourses  have  been 
travelled,  and  there  was  neither  a  settlement  nor  a 
house  along  the  Columbia  in  that  great  reach  of  its 
valley  between  our  border  and  the  Canadian  Pacific 
Railway,  except  at  the  landing  at  which  this  boat 
stopped. 

Over  all  the  varying  scene,  as  the  boat  ploughed 
along,  hung  a  mighty  silence ;  for  almost  the  only  life 
on  the  deep  wooded  sides  of  the  mountains  was  that 
of  stealthy  game.  At  only  two  points  were  any  human 
beings  lodged,  and  these  were  wood-choppers  who 
supplied  the  fuel  for  the  steamer — a  Chinaman  in  one 
place,  and  two  or  three  white  men  farther  on.  In  this 
part  of  its  magnificent  valley  the  Columbia  broadens 
in  two  long  loops,  called  the  Arrow  Lakes,  each  more 
than  two  miles  wide  and  twenty  to  thirty  miles  in 
length.  Their  prodigious  towering  walls  are  densely 
wooded,  and  in  places  are  snow-capped  in  midsummer. 
The  forest  growth  is  primeval,  and  its  own  luxuriance 
crowds  it  beyond  the  edge  of  the  grand  stream  in  the 
fretwork  of  fallen  trunks  and  bushes,  whose  roots  are 
bedded  in  the  soft  mass  of  centuries  of  forest  debris. 

Early  in  the  journey  the  clerk  of  the  steamer  told 
me  that  wild  animals  were  frequently  seen  crossing 
the  river  ahead  of  the  vessel ;  bear,  he  said,  and  deer 
and  elk  and  porcupine.  When  I  left  him  to  go  to 
my  state-room  and  dress  for  the  rough  journey  ahead 


292  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

of  me,  he  came  to  my  door,  calling  in  excited  tones  for 
me  to  come  out  on  the  deck.  "  There's  a  big  bear 
ahead !"  he  cried,  and  as  he  spoke  I  saw  the  black 
head  of  the  animal  cleaving  the  quiet  water  close  to 
the  nearer  shore.  Presently  Bruin's  feet  touched  the 
bottom,  and  he  bounded  into  the  bush  and  disap- 
peared. 

The  scenery  was  superb  all  the  day,  but  at  sundown 
nature  began  to  revel  in  a  series  of  the  most  splendid 
and  spectacular  effects.  For  an  hour  a  haze  had 
clothed  the  more  distant  mountains  as  with  a  trans- 
parent veil,  rendering  the  view  dream-like  and  soft 
beyond  description.  But  as  the  sun  sank  to  the  sum- 
mit of  the  uplifted  horizon  it  began  to  lavish  the  most 
intense  colors  upon  all  the  objects  in  view.  The  snowy 
peaks  turned  to  gaudy  prisms  as  of  crystal,  the  wood- 
ed summits  became  impurpled,  the  nearer  hills  turned 
a  deep  green,  and  the  tranquil  lake  assumed  a  bright 
pea -color.  Above  all  else,  the  sky  was  gorgeous. 
Around  its  western  edge  it  took  on  a  rose-red  blush 
that  blended  at  the  zenith  with  a  deep  blue,  in  which 
were  floating  little  clouds  of  amber  and  of  flame- lit 
pearl, 

A  moonless  night  soon  closed  around  the  boat,  and 
in  the  morning  we  were  at  Sproat's  Landing,  a  place 
two  months  old.  The  village  consisted  of  a  tiny  clus- 
ter of  frame-houses  and  tents  perched  on  the  edge 
of  the  steep  bank  of  the  Columbia.  One  building  was 
the  office  and  storehouse  of  the  projected  railroad, 
two  others  were  general  trading  stores,  one  was  the 
hotel,  and  the  other  habitations  were  mainly  tents. 

I  firmly  believe  there  never  was  a  hotel  like  the 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT 


293 


hostlery  there.  In  a  general  way  its  design  was  an 
adaptation  of  the  plan  of  a  hen-coop.  Possibly  a  box 
made  of  gridirons  suggests  more  clearly  the  principle 
of  its  construction.  It  was  two  stories  high,  and  con- 
tained about  a  baker's  dozen  of  rooms,  the  main  one 
beingr  the  bar-room,  of  course.     After  the  framework 


AN   INDIAN   CANOE   ON   THE   COLUMBIA 


had  been  finished,  there  was  perhaps  half  enough 
"slab"  lumber  to  sheathe  the  outside  of  the  house, 
and  this  had  been  made  to  serve  for  exterior  and  in- 
terior walls,  and  the  floors  and  ceilings  besides.  The 
consequence  was  that  a  flock  of  gigantic  canaries 
might  have  been  kept  in  it  with  propriety,  but  as  a 
place  of  abode  for  human  beings  it  compared  closely 
with  the  Brooklyn  Bridge. 

They  have  in  our  West  many  very  frail  hotels  that 
the  people  call  "telephone  houses,"  because  a  tenant 
can  hear  in  every  room  whatever  is  spoken  in  any 


294  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

part  of  the  building;  but  in  this  house  one  could 
stand  in  any  room  and  see  into  all  the  others.  A 
clergyman  and  his  wife  stopped  in  it  on  the  night 
before  I  arrived,  and  the  good  woman  stayed  up  until 
nearly  daylight,  pinning  papers  on  the  walls  and  lay- 
ing them  on  the  floor  until  she  covered  a  corner  in 
which  to  prepare  for  bed. 

I  hired  a  room  and  stored  my  traps  in  it,  but  I 
slept  in  one  of  the  engineers'  tents,  and  met  with  a 
very  comical  adventure.  The  tent  contained  two 
cots,  and  a  bench  on  which  the  engineer,  who  occu- 
pied one  of  the  beds,  had  heaped  his  clothing.  Sup- 
posing him  to  be  asleep,  I  undressed  quietly,  blew  out 
the  candle,  and  popped  into  my  bed.  As  I  did  so  one 
pair  of  its  legs  broke  down,  and  it  naturally  occurred- 
to  me,  at  almost  the  same  instant,  that  the  bench 
was  of  about  the  proper  height  to  raise  the  fallen  end 
of  the  cot  to  the  right  level. 

"  Broke  down,  eh  ?"  said  my  companion — a  man, 
by-the-way,  whose  face  I  have  never  yet  seen. 

"  Yes,"  I  replied.  "  Can  I  put  your  clothing  on  the 
floor  and  make  use  of  that  bench  ?" 

"  Aye,  that  you  can." 

So  out  of  bed  I  leaped,  put  his  apparel  in  a  heap 
on  the  floor,  and  ran  the  bench  under  my  bed.  It 
proved  to  be  a  neat  substitute  for  the  broken  legs, 
and  I  was  quickly  under  the  covers  again  and  ready 
for  sleep. 

The  engineer's  voice  roused  me. 

"  That's  what  I  call  the  beauty  of  a  head-piece,"  he 
said.     Presently  he  repeated  the  remark. 

"  Are  you  speaking  to  me  ?"  I  asked. 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT  295 

"  Yes;  I'm  saying  that's  what  I  call  the  beauty  of  a 
head-piece.  It's  wonderful;  and  many's  the  day  and 
night  I'll  think  of  it,  if  I  live.  What  do  I  mean  ?  Wh}^ 
I  mean  that  that  is  what  makes  you  Americans  such 
a  great  people — it's  the  beauty  of  having  head-pieces 
on  your  shoulders.  It's  so  easy  to  think  quick  if 
you've  got  something  to  think  with.  Here  you  are, 
and  your  bed  breaks  down.  What  would  I  do  ? 
Probably  nothing.  I'd  think  what  a  beastly  scrape 
it  was,  and  I'd  keep  on  thinking  till  I  went  to  sleep. 
What  do  you  do  ?  Why,  as  quick  as  a  flash  you  says, 
'  Hello,  here's  a  go  !'  '  May  I  have  the  bench }'  says 
you,  '  Yes,'  says  I.  Out  of  bed  you  go,  and  you 
clap  the  bench  under  the  bed,  and  there  you  are,  as 
right  as  a  trivet.  That's  the  beauty  of  a  head-piece, 
and  that's  what  makes  America  the  wonderful  coun- 
try she  is." 

Never  was  a  more  sincere  compliment  paid  to  my 
country,  and  I  am  glad  I  obtained  it  so  easily. 

There  was  a  barber  pole  in  front  of  the  house,  set 
up  by  a  "prospector"  who  had  run  out  of  funds  (and 
everything  else  except  hope),  and  who,  like  all  his 
kind,  had  stopped  to  "  make  a  few  dollars  "  wherewith 
to  outfit  again  and  continue  his  search  for  gold.  He 
noted  the  local  need  of  a  barber,  and  instantly  be- 
came one  by  purchasing  a  razor  on  credit,  and  paint- 
ing a  pole  while  waiting  for  custom.  He  was  a  jocu- 
lar fellow — a  born  New  Yorker,  by-the-way. 

"  Don't  shave  me  close,"  said  I. 

"Close?"  he  repeated.  "You'll  be  the  luckiest 
victim  I've  slashed  yet  if  I  get  off  any  of  your  beard 
at  all.     How's  the  razor  ?" 


296  ON  Canada's  frontier 

"All  right." 

"  Oh  no,  it  ain't,"  said  he ;  "  you're  setting  your 
nerves  to  stand  it,  so's  not  to  be  called  a  tender-foot. 
I'm  no  barber.  I  expected  to  'tend  bar  when  I 
bumped  up  agin  this  place.  If  you  could  see  the 
blood  streaming  down  your  face  you'd  faint." 

In  spite  of  his  self-depreciation,  he  performed  as 
artistic  and  painless  an  operation  as  I  ever  sat 
through. 

While  I  was  being  shaved  the  loungers  in  the 
barber-shop  entered  into  a  conversation  that  re- 
vealed, as  nothing  else  could  have  disclosed  it,  the 
deadly  monotony  of  life  in  that  little  town.  A  hen 
cackled  out-of-doors,  and  the  loungers  fell  to  ques- 
tioning one  another  as  to  which  hen  had  laid  an  egg. 

"  It  must  be  the  black  one,"  said  the  barber. 

"  Yet  it  don't  exactly  sound  like  old  blacky's 
cackle,"  said  a  more  deliberate  and  careful  speaker. 

"  'Pears  to  me  's  though  it  might  be  the  speckled 
un,"  ventured  a  third. 

"  She  ain't  never  laid  no  eggs,"  said  the  barber. 

"  Could  it  be  the  bantam  ?"  another  inquired. 

Thus  they  discussed  with  earnestness  this  most  in- 
teresting event  of  the  morning,  until  a  young  man 
darted  into  the  room  with  his  eyes  lighted  by  excite- 
ment. 

"  Say,  Bill,"  said  he,  almost  breathlessly,  "  that's 
the  speckled  hen  a-cackling,  by  thunder !  She's  laid 
an  egg,  I  guess." 

In  Sproat's  Landing  we  saw  the  nucleus  of  a  rail- 
road terminal  point.  The  queer  hotel  was  but  little 
more  peculiar  than  many  of  the  people  who  gathered 


»|lilill  lillMIIII   llillllllil|lil|{ll|ll|%^ 


«         7! 


'y~i{i-^K<<,  1-- 


"  you're  setting  your  nerves  to  stand  it" 


on  the  single  street  on  pay-day  to  spend  their  hard- 
earned  money  upon  a  great  deal  of  illicit  whiskey  and 
a  few  rude  necessaries  from  the  limited  stock  on  sale 
in  the  stores.  There  never  had  been  any  grave  dis- 
order there,  yet  the  floating  population  was  as  motley 
a  collection  of  the  riffraff  of  the  border  as  one  could 
well   imagine,  and   there  was  only  one   policeman  to 


298  ON  Canada's  frontier 

enforce  the  law  in  a  territory  the  size  of  Rhode  Isl- 
and. He  was  quite  as  remarkable  in  his  way  as  any 
other  development  of  that  embryotic  civilization.  His 
name  was  Jack  Kirkup,  and  all  who  knew  him  spoke 
of  him  as  being  physically  the  most  superb  example 
of  manhood  in  the  Dominion.  Six  feet  and  three 
inches  in  heiofht,  with  the  chest,  neck,  and  limbs  of  a 
giant,  his  three  hundred  pounds  of  weight  were  so 
exactly  his  complement  as  to  give  him  the  symmetry 
of  an  Apollo.  He  was  good-looking,  with  the  beauty 
of  a  round-faced,  good-natured  boy,  and  his  thick  hair 
fell  in  a  cluster  of  ringlets  over  his  forehead  and  upon 
his  neck.  No  knight  of  Arthur's  circle  can  have 
been  more  picturesque  a  figure  in  the  forest  than  this 
"  Jack."  He  was  as  neat  as  a  dandy.  He  wore  high 
boots  and  corduroy  knickerbockers,  a  flannel  shirt 
and  a  sack-coat,  and  rode  his  big  bay  horse  with  the 
ease  and  sirace  of  a  Skobeleff.  He  smoked  like  a  fire 
of  green  brush,  but  had  never  tasted  liquor  in  his  life. 
In  a  dozen  years  he  had  slept  more  frequently  in  the 
open  air,  upon  pebble  beds  or  in  trenches  in  the  snow, 
than  upon  ordinary  bedding,  and  he  exhibited,  in  his 
graceful  movements,  his  sparkling  eyes  and  ruddy 
cheeks,  his  massive  frame  and  his  imperturbable  good- 
nature, a  degree  of  health  and  vigor  that  would  seem 
insolent  to  the  average  New  Yorker.  Now  that  the 
railroad  was  building,  he  kept  ever  on  the  trail,  along 
what  was  called  "  the  right  of  way" — going  from  camp 
to  camp  to  "jump"  whiskey  peddlers  and  gamblers 
and  to  quell  disorder — except  on  pay-day,  once  a 
month,  when  he  stayed  at  Sproat's  Landing. 

The  echoes  of  his  fearless  behavior  and  lively  ad- 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT 


299 


ventures  -rang  in  every  gathering.  The  general  tenor 
of  the  stories  was  to  the  effect  that  he  usually  gave 
one  warning  to  evil-doers,  and  if  they  did  not  heed 
that  he  "  cleaned  them  out."  He  carried  a  revolver, 
but  never  had  used  it.  Even  when  the  most  notori- 
ous gambler  on  our  border  had  crossed  over  into 
"Jack's"  bailiwick  the  policeman  depended  upon  his 
fists.  He  had  met  the  gambler  and  had  "  advised" 
him  to  take  the  cars  next  day.     The  gambler,  in  re- 


JACK    KIRKUP,   THE   MOUNTAIN    SHERIFF 


300  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

ply,  had  suggested  that  both  would  get  along  more 
quietly  if  each  minded  his  own  affairs,  whereupon 
Kirkup  had  said,  "  You  hear  me :  take  the  cars  out 
of  here  to-morrow."  The  little  community  (it  was 
Donald,  B.  C,  a  very  rough  place  at  the  time)  held 
its  breathing  for  twenty-four  hours,  and  at  the  ap- 
proach of  train -time  was  on  tiptoe  with  strained 
anxiety.  At  twenty  minutes  before  the  hour  the 
policeman,  amiable  and  easy-going  as  ever  in  appear- 
ance, began  a  tour  of  the  houses.  It  was  in  a  tavern 
that  he  found  the  gambler. 

"  You  must  take  the  train,"  said  he. 

"  You  can't  make  me,"  replied  the  gambler. 

There  were  no  more  words.  In  two  minutes  the 
giant  was  carrying  the  limp  body  of  the  ruffian  to  a 
wagon,  in  which  he  drove  him  to  the  jail.  There  he 
washed  the  blood  off  the  gambler's  face  and  tidied 
his  collar  and  scarf.  From  there  the  couple  walked 
to  the  cars,  where  they  parted  amicably. 

"  I  had  to  be  a  little  rough,"  said  Kirkup  to  the 
loungers  at  the  station,  "  because  he  was  armed  like 
a  pin-cushion,  and  I  didn't  want  to  have  to  kill  him." 

We  made  the  journey  from  Sproat's  Landing  to 
the  Kootenay  River  upon  a  sorry  quartet  of  pack- 
horses  that  were  at  other  times  employed  to  carry 
provisions  and  material  to  the  construction  camps. 
They  were  of  the  kind  of  horses  known  all  over  the 
West  as  "  cayuses."  The  word  is  the  name  of  a  once 
notable  tribe  of  Indians  in  what  is  now  the  State  of 
Washington.  To  these  Indians  is  credited  the  intro- 
duction of  this  small  and  peculiar  breed  of  horses, 
but  many  persons  in  the  West  think  the  horses  get 


\ 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT  30I 

the  nickname  because  of  a  humorous  fancy  begotten 
of  their  wildness,  and  suggesting  that  they  are  only 
part  horses  and  part  coyotes.  But  all  the  wildness 
and  the  characteristic  "  bucking"  had  long  since  been 
"  packed "  out  of  these  poor  creatures,  and  they 
needed  the  whip  frequently  to  urge  them  upon  a  slow 
progress.  Kirkup  was  going  his  rounds,  and  accom- 
panied us  on  our  journey  of  less  than  twenty  miles  to 
the  Kootenay  River.  On  the  way  one  saw  every 
stage  in  the  construction  of  a  railway.  The  process 
of  development  was  reversed  as  we  travelled,  because 
the  work  had  been  pushed  well  along  where  we  start- 
ed, and  was  but  at  its  commencement  where  we  ended 
our  trip.  At  the  landing  half  a  mile  or  more  of  the 
railroad  had  been  completed,  even  to  the  addition  of 
a  locomotive  and  two  gondola  cars.  Beyond  the 
little  strip  of  rails  was  a  long  reach  of"  graded  road- 
bed, and  so  the  progress  of  the  work  dwindled,  until 
at  last  there  was  little  more  than  the  trail  -  cutters' 
path  to  mark  what  had  been  determined  as  the  "right 
of  way." 

For  the  sake  of  clearness,  I  will  first  explain  the 
steps  that  are  taken  at  the  outset  in  building  a  rail- 
road, rather  than  tell  what  parts  of  the  undertaking 
we  came  upon  in  passing  over  the  various  "con- 
tracts "  that  were  being  worked  in  what  appeared  a 
confusing  and  hap-hazard  disorder.  I  have  mentioned 
that  one  of  the  houses  at  the  landing  was  the  railroad 
company's  storehouse,  and  that  near  by  were  the 
tents  of  the  surveyors  or  civil  engineers.  The  road 
was  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  system, 
and  these  engineers  were  the  first  men  sent  into  the 


302  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

country,  with  instructions  to  survey  a  line  to  the  new 
mining  region,  into  which  men  were  pouring  from  the 
older  parts  of  Canada  and  from  our  country.  It  was 
understood  by  them  that  they  were  to  hit  upon  the 
most  direct  and  at  the  same  time  the  least  expensive 
route  for  the  railroad  to  take.  They  went  to  the 
scene  of  their  labors  by  canoes,  and  carried  tents, 
blankets,  instruments,  and  what  they  called  their 
"  grub  stakes,"  which  is  to  say,  their  food.  Then  they 
travelled  over  the  ground  between  their  two  terminal 
points,  and  back  by  another  route,  and  back  again  by 
still  another  route,  and  so  back  and  forth  perhaps 
four  and  possibly  six  times.  In  that  way  alone  were 
they  enabled  to  select  the  line  which  offered  the 
shortest  length  and  the  least  obstacles  in  number  and 
desfree  for  the  workmen  who  were  to  come  after 
them. 

At  Sproat's  Landing  I  met  an  engineer,  Mr.  B.  C. 
Stewart,  who  is  famous  in  his  profession  as  the  most 
tireless  and  intrepid  exponent  of  its  difficulties  in  the 
Dominion.  The  young  men  account  it  a  misfortune 
to  be  detailed  to  go  on  one  of  his  journeys  with  him. 
It  is  his  custom  to  start  out  with  a  blanket,  some 
bacon  and  meal,  and  a  coffee-pot,  and  to  be  gone  for 
weeks,  and  even  for  months.  There  scarcely  can  have 
been  a  hardier  Scotchman,  one  of  more  simple  tastes 
and  requirements,  or  one  possessing  in  any  higher 
degree  the  quality  called  endurance.  He  has  spent 
years  in  the  mountains  of  British  Columbia,  finding 
and  exploring  the  various  passes,  the  most  direct  and 
feasible  routes  to  and  from  them,  the  valleys  between 
the  ranores,  and  the  characteristics  of  each  section  of 


I  J\ti?\*,Ul\l 


\  "  ^1 


ENGINEER   ON   THE  PRELIMINARY   SURVEY 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT  305 

the  country.  In  a  vast  country  that  has  not  other- 
wise been  one -third  explored  he  has  made  himself 
famihar  with  the  full  southern  half.  He  has  not 
known  what  it  was  to  enjoy  a  home,  nor  has  he  seen 
an  apple  growing  upon  a  tree  in  many  years.  During 
his  long  and  close-succeeding  trips  he  has  run  the 
whole  o-amut  of  the  adventures  incident  to  the  lives 

o 

of  hunters  or  explorers,  suffering  hunger,  exposure, 
peril  from  wild  beasts,  and  all  the  hair-breadth  escapes 
from  frost  and  storm  and  flood  that  Nature  unvan- 
quished  visits  upon  those  who  first  brave  her  depths. 
Such  is  the  work  and  such  are  the  men  that  figure 
in  the  foremost  preliminaries  to  railroad  building. 

Whoever  has  left  the  beaten  path  of  travel  or  gone 
beyond  a  well-settled  region  can  form  a  more  or  less 
just  estimate  of  that  which  one  of  these  professional 
pioneers  encounters  in  prospecting  for  a  railroad.  I 
had  several  "  tastes,"  as  the  Irish  express  it,  of  that 
very  Kootenay  Valley.  I  can  say  conscientiously  that 
I  never  was  in  a  wilder  region.  In  going  only  a  few 
yards  from  the  railroad  "  right  of  way  "  the  difficulties 
of  an  experienced  pedestrianism  like  my  own  in- 
stantly became  tremendous.  There  was  a  particular- 
ly choice  spot  for  fishing  at  a  distance  of  three-quar- 
ters of  a  mile  from  Dan  Dunn's  outfit,  and  I  travelled 
the  road  to  it  half  a  dozen  times.  Bunyan  would 
have  strengthened  the  Pilgrims  Progress  had  he 
known  of  such  conditions  with  which  to  surround 
his  hero.  Between  rocks  the  size  of  a  city  mansion 
and  unsteady  bowlders  no  larger  than  a  man's  head 
the  ground  was  all  but  covered.  Among  this  wreckage 
trees  grew  in  wild  abundance,  and  countless  trunks 


b 


306  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

of  dead  ones  lay  rotting  between  them.  A  jungle  as 
dense  as  any  I  ever  saw  was  formed  of  soft-wood  sap- 
lings and  bushes,  so  that  it  was  next  to  impossible  to 
move  a  yard  in  any  direction.  It  was  out  of  the 
question  for  any  one  to  see  three  yards  ahead,  and 
there  was  often  no  telling  when  a  foot  was  put  down 
whether  it  was  going  through  a  rotten  trunk  or  upon 
a  spinning  bowlder,  or  whether  the  black  shadows 
here  and  there  were  a  foot  deep  or  were  the  mouths 
of  fissures  that  reached  to  China.  I  fished  too  loner 
one  night,  and  was  obliged  to  make  that  journey  after 
dark.  After  ten  minutes  crowded  with  falls  and  false 
steps,  the  task  seemed  so  hopelessly  impossible  that 
I  could  easily  have  been  induced  to  turn  back  and 
risk  a  night  on  the  rocks  at  the  edge  of  the  tide. 

It  was  after  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  natural 
conditions  which  the  railroad  men  were  overcoming 
that  the  gradual  steps  of  their  progress  became  most 
interesting.  The  first  men  to  follow  the  engineers, 
after  the  specifications  have  been  drawn  up  and  the 
contracts  signed,  are  the  "  right-of-way"  men.  These 
are  partly  trail-makers  and  partly  laborers  at  the 
heavier  work  of  actually  clearing  the  wilderness  for 
the  road-bed.  The  trail-cutters  are  guided  by  the  long 
line  of  stakes  with  which  the  engineers  have  marked 
the  course  the  road  is  to  take.  The  trail -men  are 
sent  out  to  cut  what  in  general  parlance  would  be 
called  a  path,  over  which  supplies  are  to  be  thereafter 
carried  to  the  workmen's  camps.  The  path  they  cut 
must  therefore  be  sufficiently  wide  for  the  passage 
alone  it  of  a  mule  and  his  load.  As  a  mule's  load 
will  sometimes  consist  of  the  framework  of  a  kitchen 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT  307 

range,  or  the  end  boards  of  a  bedstead,  a  five -foot 
swath  throusfh  the  forest  is  a  trail  of  serviceable 
width.  The  trail-cutters  fell  the  trees  to  right  and 
left,  and  drag  the  fallen  trunks  out  of  the  path  as 
they  go  along,  travelling  and  working  between  a  mile 
and  two  miles  each  da}^  and  moving  their  tents  and 
provisions  on  pack-horses  as  they  advance.  They 
keep  reasonably  close  to  the  projected  line  of  the 
railway,  but  the  path  they  cut  is  apt  to  be  a  winding 
one  that  avoids  the  larger  rocks  and  the  smaller 
ravines.  Great  distortions,  such  as  hills  or  gullies, 
which  the  railroad  must  pass  through  or  over,  the  trail 
men  pay  no  heed  to;  neither  do  the  pack-horses,  whose 
tastes  are  not  consulted,  and  who  can  cling  to  a  rock 
at  almost  any  angle,  like  flies  of  larger  growth.  This 
trail,  when  finished,  leads  from  the  company's  store- 
house all  along  the  line,  and  from  that  storehouse,  on 
the  backs  of  the  pack-animals,  come  all  the  food  and 
tools  and  clothing,  powder,  dynamite,  tents,  and  living 
utensils,  to  be  used  by  the  workmen,  their  bosses^ 
and  the  engineers. 

Slowly,  behind  the  trail-cutters,  follow  the  "  right- 
of-way"  men.  These  are  axemen  also.  All  that  they 
do  is  to  cut  the  trees  down  and  drag  them  out  of  the 
way. 

It  is  when  the  axemen  have  cleared  the  right  of 
way  that  the  first  view  of  the  railroad  in  embryo  is 
obtainable.  And  very  queer  it  looks.  It  is  a  wide 
avenue  through  the  forest,  to  be  sure,  yet  it  is  little 
like  any  forest  drive  that  we  are  accustomed  to  in  the 
realms  of  civilization. 

Every  succeeding  stage  of  the  work  leads  towards 


3o8 


ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 


the  production  of  an  even  and  level 
thoroughfare,  without  protuberance  or 
depression,  and  in  the  course  of  our 

ride  to  Dan 
Dunn's  camp 
on  the  Koo- 
tenay  we  saw 
the  rapidly 
developing 
railroad  in 
each  phase 
of  its  evolu- 
tion from  the 
rough  surface 
of  the  wilder- 
ness. Now 
we  would 
come  upon  a 
long  reach  of 
finished  road- 
bed on  com- 
p  a  r  a  t  i  V  e  1  y 
level  ground 
all  ready  for 
the  rails,  with 
carpenters  at  work  in  little  gullies  which  they  were 
spanning  with  timber  trestles.  Next  we  would  see  a 
battalion  of  men  and  dump-carts  cutting  into  a  hill 
of  dirt  and  carting  its  substance  to  a  neighboring 
valley,  wherein  they  were  slowly  heaping  a  long  and 
symmetrical  wall  of  earth -work,  with  sloping  sides 
and  level  top,  to  bridge  the  gap  between  hill  and  hill. 


i-ALLING    MONARCHS 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT  309 

Again,  we  came  upon  places  where  men  ran  towards 
us  shouting  that  a  "  blast "  was  to  be  fired.  Here 
was  what  was  called  "  rockwork,"  where  some  granite 
rib  of  a  mountain  or  huge  rocky  knoll  was  being 
blown  to  flinders  with  dynamite. 

And  so,  through  all  these  scenes  upon  the  pack- 
trail,  we  came  at  last  to  a  white  camp  of  tents  hidden 
in  the  lush  greenery  of  a  luxuriant  forest,  and  nestling 
beside  a  rushing  mountain  torrent  of  green  water 
flecked  with  the  foam  from  an  eternal  battle  with  a 
myriad  of  sunken  rocks.  It  was  Dunn's  headquar- 
ters— the  construction  camp.  Evening  was  falling, 
and  the  men  were  clambering  down  the  hill-side  trails 
from  their  work.  There  was  no  order  in  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  tents,  nor  had  the  forest  been  prepared  for 
them.  Their  white  sides  rose  here  and  there  wher- 
ever there  was  a  space  between  the  trees,  as  if  so 
many  great  white  moths  had  settled  in  a  garden. 
Huge  trees  had  been  felled  and  thrown  across  ravines 
to  serve  as  aerial  foot-paths  from  point  to  point,  and 
at  the  river  s  edge  two  or  three  tents  seemed  to  have 
been  pushed  over  the  steep  bluff  to  find  lodgement  on 
the  sandy  beach  beside  the  turbulent  stream. 

There  were  other  camps  on  the  line  of  this  work, 
and  it  is  worth  while  to  add  a  word  about  their  man- 
agement and  the  system  under  which  they  were  main- 
tained. In  the  first  place,  each  camp  is  apt  to  be 
the  outfit  of  a  contractor.  The  whole  work  of  build- 
ing a  railroad  is  let  out  in  contracts  for  portions  of 
five,  ten,  or  fifteen  miles.  Even  when  great  jobs  of 
seventy  or  a  hundred  miles  are  contracted  for  in  one 
piece,  it  is  customary  for  the  contractor  to  divide  his 


3IO  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

task  and  sublet  it.  But  a  fairly  representative  bit  of 
mountain  work  is  that  which  I  found  Dan  Dunn 
superintending,  as  the  factotum  of  the  contractor  who 
undertook  it. 

If  a  contractor  acts  as  "  boss  "  himself,  he  stays 
upon  the  ground ;  but  in  this  case  the  contractor  had 
other  undertakings  in  hand.  Hence  the  presence  of 
Dan  Dunn,  his  walking  boss  or  general  foreman. 
Dunn  is  a  man  of  means,  and  is  himself  a  contractor 
by  profession,  who  has  worked  his  way  up  from  a 
start  as  a  laborer. 

The  camp  to  which  we  came  was  a  portable  city, 
complete  except  for  its  lack  of  women.  It  had  its 
artisans,  its  professional  men,  its  store  and  workshops, 
its  seat  of  government  and  officers,  and  its  policeman, 
its  amusement  hall,  its  work-a-day  and  social  sides. 
Its  main  peculiarity  was  that  its  boss  (for  it  was  like 
an  American  city  in  the  possession  of  that  function- 
ary also)  had  announced  that  he  was  going  to  move 
it  a  couple  of  miles  away  on  the  following  Sunday. 
One  tent  was  the  stableman's,  with  a  capacious  "cor- 
ral "  fenced  in  near  by  for  the  keeping  of  the  pack 
horses  and  mules.  His  corps  of  assistants  was  a 
large  one  :  for,  besides  the  pack-horses  that  connected 
the  camp  with  the  outer  world,  he  had  the  keeping  of 
all  the  "  grade-horses,"  so  called — those  which  draw 
the  stone  and  dirt  carts  and  the  little  dump-cars  on 
the  false  tracks  set  up  on  the  levels  near  where  "  fill- 
ing:" or  "cutting:"  is  to  be  done.  Another  tent  was 
the  blacksmith's.  He  had  a  "  helper,"  and  was  a  busy 
man,  charged  with  all  the  tool-sharpening,  the  care  of 
all  the  horses'  feet,  and  the  repairing  of  all  the  iron- 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT 


311 


work  of  the  wagons,  cars, 
and  dirt -scrapers.  Near 
by  was  the  harness-man's 
tent,  the  shop  of  the  leath- 
er-mender. In  the  centre 
of  the  camp,  h'ke  a  low 
citadel,  rose  a  mound  of 
logs  and  earth  bearing  on 
a  sign  the  single  word 
"  Powder,"  but  containing 
within  its  great  sunken 
a  considerable 
various    explo- 


chamber 
store    of 

sives  —  giant,  black,  and 
Judson  powder,  and  dyna- 
mite. 

More  tremendous  force 
is  used  in  railroad  blasting 
than  most  persons  imag- 
ine. In  order  to  perform 
a  quick  job  of  removing  a 
section  of  solid  mountain, 
the  drill-men,  after  making 
a  bore,  say,  twenty  feet  in 
depth,  begin  w'hat  they  call 
"springing"  it  by  explod- 

iuQ-  little  cartridges  in  the  bottom  of  the  drill  hole 
until  the}'  have  produced  a  considerable  chamber 
there.  The  average  amount  of  explosive  for  which 
they  thus  prepare  a  place  is  40  or  50  kegs  of  giant 
poW'der  and  10  kegs  of  black  powder ;  but  Dunn 
told  me  he  had  seen  2 So  kegs  of  black  powder  and 


DAN   DUNN   ON  HIS   WORKS 


312  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

500  pounds  of  dynamite  used  in  a  single  blast  in 
mountain  work. 

Another  tent  was  that  of  the  time-keeper.  He  jour- 
neyed twice  a  day  all  over  the  work,  five  miles  up 
and  five  down.  On  one  journey  he  noted  what  men 
were  at  labor  in  the  forenoon,  and  on  his  return  he 
tallied  those  who  were  entitled  to  pay  for  the  second 
half  of  the  day.  Such  an  official  knows  the  name  of 
every  laborer,  and,  moreover,  he  knows  the  pecuniary 
rating  of  each  man,  so  that  when  the  workmen  stop 
him  to  order  shoes  or  trousers,  blankets,  shirts,  to- 
bacco, penknives,  or  what  not,  he  decides  upon  his 
own  responsibility  whether  they  have  sufficient  money 
coming  to  them  to  meet  the  accommodation. 

The  "  store  "  was  simply  another  tent.  In  it  was 
kept  a  fair  supply  of  the  articles  in  constant  demand 
■ —  a  supply  brought  from  the  headquarters  store  at 
the  other  end  of  the  trail,  and  constantly  replenished 
by  the  pack-horses.  This  trading-place  was  in  charge 
of  a  man  called  "  the  book-keeper,"  and  he  had  two 
or  three  clerks  to  assist  him.  The  stock  was  pre- 
cisely like  that  of  a  cross-roads  country  store  in  one 
of  our  older  States.  Its  goods  included  simple  medi- 
cines, boots,  shoes,  clothing,  cutlery,  tobacco,  cigars, 
pipes,  hats  and  caps,  blankets,  thread  and  needles, 
and  several  hundred  others  among  the  ten  thousand 
necessaries  of  a  modern  laborer's  life.  The  only  legal 
tender  received  there  took  the  shape  of  orders  written 
by  the  time-keeper,  for  the  man  in  charge  of  the  store 
was  not  required  to  know  the  ratings  of  the  men 
upon  the  pay-roll. 

The  doctor's  tent  was  among  the  rest,  but  his  office 


DAN    DUNNS    OUTFIT  315 

might  aptly  have  been  said  to  be  "  in  the  saddle."  He 
was  nominally  employed  by  the  company,  but  each 
man  was  "  docked,"  or  charged,  seventy-five  cents  a 
month  for  medical  services  whether  he  ever  needed  a 
doctor  or  not.  When  I  was  in  the  camp  there  was 
only  one  sick  man — a  rheumatic.  He  had  a  tent  all 
to  himself,  and  his  meals  were  regularly  carried  to 
him.  Though  he  was  a  stranger  to  every  man  there, 
and  had  worked  only  one  day  before  he  surrendered 
to  sickness,  a  purse  of  about  forty  dollars  had  been 
raised  for  him  among  the  men,  and  he  was  to  be 
^'  packed  "  to  Sproat's  Landing  on  a  mule  at  the  com- 
pany's expense  whenever  the  doctor  decreed  it  wise 
to  move  him.  Of  course  invalidism  of  a  more  serious 
nature  is  not  infrequent  where  men  work  in  the  paths 
of  sliding  rocks,  beneath  caving  earth,  amid  falling 
forest  trees,  around  giant  blasts,  and  with  heavy  tools. 

Another  one  of  the  tents  was  that  of  the  "  boss 
packer."  He  superintended  the  transportation  of  sup- 
plies on  the  pack-trail.  This  "  job  of  200  men,"  as 
Dunn  styled  his  camp,  employed  thirty  pack  horses 
and  mules.  The  pack-trains  consisted  of  a  "  bell- 
horse  "  and  boy,  and  six  horses  following.  Each 
animal  was  rated  to  carry  a  burden  of  400  pounds  of 
dead  weight,  and  to  require  three  quarts  of  meal  three 
times  a  day. 

Another  official  habitation  was  the  "  store-man's  " 
tent.  As  a  rule,  there  is  a  store-man  to  every  ten 
miles  of  construction  work  ;  often  every  camp  has 
one.  The  store-man  keeps  account  of  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  supplies  of  food.  He  issues  requisitions 
upon  the  head  storehouse  of  the  company,  and  makes 


3i6  ON  Canada's  frontier 

out  orders  for  each  day's  rations  from  the  camp  store. 
The  cooks  are  therefore  under  him,  and  this  fact  sue- 
gests  a  mention  of  the  principal  building  in  the  camp 
— the  mess  hall,  or  "  grub  tent." 

This  structure  was  of  a  size  to  accommodate  two 
hundred  men  at  once.  Two  tables  ran  the  length  of 
the  unbroken  interior — tables  made  roughly  of  the 
slabs  or  outside  boards  from  a  saw-mill.  The  benches 
were  huge  tree  -  trunks  spiked  fast  upon  stumps. 
There  was  a  bench  on  either  side  of  each  table,  and 
the  places  for  the  men  were  each  set  with  a  tin  cup 
and  a  tin  pie  plate.  The  bread  was  heaped  high  on 
wooden  platters,  and  all  the  condiments  —  catsup, 
vinegar,  mustard,  pepper,  and  salt — were  in  cans  that 
had  once  held  condensed  milk.  The  cooks  worked 
in  an  open-ended  extension  at  the  rear  of  the  great 
room.  The  rule  is  to  have  one  cook  and  two 
"  cookees  "  to  each  sixty  men. 

While  I  was  a  new  arrival  just  undergoing  intro- 
duction, the  men,  who  had  come  in  from  work,  and 
who  had  "  washed  up  "  in  the  little  creeks  and  at  the 
river  bank,  began  to  assemble  in  the  "  grub  tent "  for 
supper.  They  were  especially  interesting  to  me  be- 
cause there  was  every  reason  to  believe  that  they 
formed  an  assembly  as  typical  of  the  human  flotsam 
of  the  border  as  ever  was  gathered  on  the  continent. 
Very  few  were  what  might  be  called  born  laborers ; 
on  the  contrary,  they  were  mainly  men  of  higher  ori- 
gin who  had  failed  in  older  civilizations ;  outlaws 
from  the  States ;  men  who  had  hoped  for  a  gold-mine 
until  hope  was  all  but  dead ;  men  in  the  first  flush  of 
the  gold  fever ;  ne'er-do-wells  ;  and  here  and  there  a 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT 


317 


working-man  by  training.  They  ate  as  a  good  many 
other  sorts  of  men  do,  with  great  rapidity,  little  eti- 
quette, and  just  enough  unselfishness  to  pass  each 
other  the  bread.  It  was  noticeable  that  they  seemed 
to  have  no  time  for  talking.  Certainly  they  had 
earned  the  right  to  be  hungry,  and  the  food  was  good 
and  plentiful. 


A    SKETCH    ON    THE    WORK 


Dan  Dunn's  tent  was  just  in  front  of  the  mess 
tent,  a  few  feet  away  on  the  edge  of  the  river  bluff. 
It  was  a  little  "A"  tent,  with  a  single  cot  on  one  side, 
a  wooden  chest  on  the  other,  and  a  small  table  be- 
tween the  two  at  the  farther  end,  opposite  the  door. 

"Are  ye  looking  at  my  wolverenes .f*"  said  he. 
"  There's  good  men  among  them,  and  some  that  ain't 
so  good,  and  many  that's  worse.     But  railroading  is 


3l8  ON    CANADA  S   FRONTIER 

good  enough  for  most  of  'em.     It  ain't  too  rich  for 
any  man's  blood,  I  assure  ye." 

Over  six  feet  in  height,  broad-chested,  athletic,  and 
carrying  not  an  ounce  of  flesh  that  could  be  spared, 
Dan  Dunn's  was  a  striking  figure  even  where  phys- 
ical strength  was  the  most  serviceable  possession  of 
every  man.  From  never  having  given  his  personal 
appearance  a  thought — except  during  a  brief  period 
of  courtship  antecedent  to  the  establishment  of  a 
home  in  old  Ontario — he  had  so  accustomed  himself 
to  unrestraint  that  his  habitual  attitude  was  that  of  a 
long-bladed  jack-knife  not  fully  opened.  His  long 
spare  arms  swung  limberly  before  a  long  spare  body 
set  upon  long  spare  legs.  His  costume  was  one  that 
is  never  described  in  the  advertisements  of  city  cloth- 
iers. It  consisted  of  a  dust-coated  slouch  felt  hat, 
which  a  dealer  once  sold  for  black,  of  a  flannel  shirt, 
of  homespun  trousers,  of  socks,  and  of  heavy  "  bro- 
gans."  In  all,  his  dress  was  what  the  aesthetes  of  Mr. 
Wilde's  day  might  have  aptly  termed  a  symphony  in 
dust.  His  shoes  and  hat  had  acquired  a  mud-color, 
and  his  shirt  and  trousers  were  chosen  because  they 
originally  possessed  it.  Yet  Dan  Dunn  was  dis- 
tinctly a  cleanly  man,  fond  of  frequent  splashing  in 
the  camp  toilet  basins — the  Kootenay  River  and  its 
little  rushing  tributaries.  He  was  not  shaven.  As 
a  rule  he  is  not,  and  yet  at  times  he  is,  as  it  happens. 
I  learned  that  on  Sundays,  when  there  was  nothing 
to  do  except  to  go  fishing,  or  to  walk  over  to  the  en- 
gineer's camp  for  intellectual  society,  he  felt  the  un- 
conscious impulse  of  a  forgotten  training,  and  put  on 
a  coat.     He  even  tied  a  black  silk  ribbon  under  his 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT 


319 


collar  on  such  occasions,  and  if  no  one  had  given 
him  a  good  cigar  during  the  week,  he  took  out  his 
best  pipe  (which  had  been  locked  up,  because  what- 
ever was  not  under  lock  and  key  was  certain  to  be 
stolen  in  half  an  hour).  Then  he  felt  fitted,  as  he 
would  say,  "  for  a  hard  day's  work  at  loafing." 

If  you  came  upon  Dan  Dunn  on  Broadway,  he 
would  look  as  awkward  as  any  other  animal  removed 
from  its  element ;  yet  on  a  forest  trail  not  even  Davy 
Crockett  was  handsomer  or  more  picturesque.  His 
face  is  reddish-brown  and  as  hard-skinned  as  the  top 
of  a  drum,  befitting  a  man  who  has  lived  out-of-doors 
all  his  life.  But  it  is  a  finely  moulded  face,  instinct 
with  good-nature  and  some  gentleness.  The  witch- 
ery of  quick  Irish  humor  lurks  often  in  his  eyes,  but 


THE   MESS    TENT    AT    NIGHT 


320  ON    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

can  quickly  give  place  on  occasion  to  a  firm  light, 
whtch  is  best  read  in  connection  with  the  broad, 
strong  sweep  of  his  massive  under-jaw.  There  you 
see  his  fitness  to  command  small  armies,  even  of 
what  he  calls  "wolverenes."  He  is  willing  to  thrash 
any  man  who  seems  to  need  the  operation,  and  yet 
he  is  equally  noted  for  gathering  a  squad  of  rough 
laborers  in  every  camp  to  make  them  his  wards.  He 
collects  the  money  such  men  earn,  and  puts  it  in 
bank,  or  sends  it  to  their  families, 

"  It  does  them  as  much  good  to  let  me  take  it  as 
to  chuck  it  over  a  gin-mill  bar,"  he  explained. 

As  we  stood  looking^  into  the  crowded  booth, 
where  the  men  sat  elbow  to  elbow,  and  all  the  knife 
blades  were  plying  to  and  from  all  the  plates  and 
mouths,  Dunn  explained  that  his  men  were  well  fed. 
"  The  time  has  gone  by,"  said  he,  "  when  you  could 
keep  an  outfit  on  salt  pork  and  bacon.  It's  as  far 
gone  as  them  days  when  they  say  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  fed  its  laborers  on  rabbit  tracks  and  a  stick. 
Did  ye  never  hear  of  that  ?  Why,  sure,  man,  'twas 
only  fifty  years  ago  that  when  meal  hours  came  the 
bosses  of  the  big  trading  company  would  give  a 
workman  a  stick,  and  point  out  some  rabbit  tracks, 
and  tell  him  he'd  have  an  hour  to  catch  his  fill.  But 
in  railroading  nowadays  we  give  them  the  best  that's 
going,  and  all  they  want  of  it — beef,  ham,  bacon,  po- 
tatoes, mush,  beans,  oatmeal,  the  choicest  fish,  and 
game  right  out  of  the  woods,  and  every  sort  of  vege- 
table (canned,  of  course).  Oh,  they  must  be  fed  well, 
or  they  wouldn't  stay." 

He  said  that  the  supplies  of  food  are  calculated  on 


DAN    DUNNS    OUTFIT  32 1 

the  basis  of  three-and-a-half  pounds  of  provisions  to 
a  man — all  the  varieties  of  food  being  proportioned 
so  that  the  total  weight  will  be  three-and-a-half 
pounds  a  day.  The  orders  are  given  frequently  and 
for  small  amounts,  so  as  to  economize  in  the  number 
of  horses  required  on  the  pack-trail.  The  amount  to 
be  consumed  by  the  horses  is,  of  course,  included  in 
the  loads.  The  cost  of  "  packing "  food  over  long 
distances  is  more  considerable  than  would  be  sup- 
posed. It  was  estimated  that  at  Dunn's  camp  the 
freighting  cost  forty  dollars  a  ton,  but  I  heard  of 
places  farther  in  the  mountains  where  the  cost  was 
double  that.  Indeed,  a  discussion  of  the  subject 
brouQ^ht  to  liijht  the  fact  that  in  remote  minins: 
camps  the  cost  of  "packing"  brought  lager-beer  in 
bottles  up  to  the  price  of  champagne.  At  one  camp 
on  the  Kootenay  bacon  was  selling  at  the  time  I 
was  in  the  valley  at  thirty  cents  a  pound,  and  dried 
peaches  fetched  forty  cents  under  competition. 

As  we  looked  on,  the  men  were  eating  fresh  beef 
and  vegetables,  with  tea  and  coffee  and  pie.  The 
head  cook  was  a  man  trained  in  a  lumber  camp,  and 
therefore  ranked  high  in  the  scale  of  his  profession. 
Every  sort  of  cook  drifts  into  camps  like  these,  and 
that  camp  considers  itself  the  most  fortunate  which 
happens  to  eat  under  the  ministrations  of  a  man  who 
has  cooked  on  a  steamboat ;  but  a  cook  from  a  lum- 
ber camp  is  rated  almost  as  proudly. 

"  Ye  w^ould  not  think  it,"  said  Dunn,  "  but  some  of 
them  men  has  been  bank  clerks,  and  there's  doctors 
and  teachers  among  'em — everything,  in  fact,  except 
preachers.     I  never  knew  a  preacher  to  get  into  a 


'they  gained  erectness  by  slow  jolts" 


railroad  gang. 
The  men  are 
always  chang- 


a  n  d  going. 
We  don't  have 
to  advertise 
for  new  hands. 
The  woods  is 
full  of  men  out 


of  a  job,  and 
out  of  everything — pockets,  elbows,  and  all.  They 
drift  in  like  peddlers  on  a  pay-day.  They  come  here 
with  no  more  clothing  than  will  wad  a  gun.  The 
most  of  them  will  s^et  nothing  after  two  months' 
work.  You  see,  they're  mortgaged  with  their  fares 
against  them  (thirty  to  forty  dollars  for  them  which 
the  railroad  brings  from  the  East),  and  then  they  have 
their  meals  to  pay  for,  at  five  dollars  a  week  while 
they're  here,  and  on  top  of  that  is  all  the  clothing 
and  shoes  and  blankets  and  tobacco,  and  everything 
they  need — all  charged  agin  them.     It's  just  as  well 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT  323 

for  tliem,  for  the  most  of  them  are  too  rich  if  they're 
a  dollar  ahead.  There's  few  of  them  can  stand  the 
luxury  of  thirty  dollars.  When  they  get  a  stake  of 
them  dimensions,  the  most  of  them  will  stay  no 
longer  after  pay-day  than  John  Brown  stayed  in 
heaven.  The  most  of  them  bang  it  all  away  for 
drink,  and  they  are  sure  to  come  back  again,  but  the 
'  prospectors '  and  chronic  tramps  only  work  to  get 
clothes  and  a  flirting  acquaintance  with  food,  as  well 
as  money  enough  to  make  an  affidavit  to,  and  they 
never  come  back  again  at  all.  Out  of  8500  men 
we  had  in  one  big  work  in  Canada,  1500  to  2000 
knocked  off  every  month.  Ninety  per  cent,  came 
back.  They  had  just  been  away  for  an  old-fashioned 
drunk." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  draw  a  parallel  between 
these  laborers  and  any  class  or  condition  of  men  in 
the  East.  They  were  of  every  nationality  where  news 
of  gold-mines,  of  free  settlers'  sections,  or  of  quick 
fortunes  in  the  New  World  had  penetrated.  I  rec- 
ognized Greeks,  Finns,  Hungarians,  Danes,  Scotch, 
English,  Irish,  and  Italians  among  them.  Not  a  man 
exhibited  a  coat,  and  all  were  tanned  brown,  and 
were  as  spare  and  slender  as  excessively  hard  work 
can  make  a  man.  There  was  not  a  superfluity  or  an 
ornament  in  sight  as  they  walked  past  me ;  not  a 
necktie,  a  finger-ring,  nor  a  watch-chain.  There  were 
some  very  intelligent  faces  and  one  or  two  fine  ones 
in  the  band.  Two  typical  old-fashioned  prospectors 
especially  attracted  me.  They  were  evidently  of 
gentle  birth,  but  time  and  exposure  had  bent  them, 
and  silvered  their  long,  unkempt  locks.     Worse  than 


324  0>«'    CANADA  S    FRONTIER 

all,  it  had  planted  in  their  faces  a  blended  expression 
of  sadness  and  hope  fatigued  that  was  painful  to  see. 
It  is  the  brand  that  is  on  every  old  prospector's  face, 
A  very  few  of  the  men  were  young  fellows  of  thirty, 
or  even  within  the  twenties.  Their  youth  impelled 
them  to  break  away  from  the  table  earlier  than  the 
others,  and,  seizing  their  rods,  to  start  off  for  the  fish- 
insf  in  the  river. 

But  those  who  thought  of  active  pleasure  were  few 
indeed.  Theirs  was  killing  work,  the  most  severe 
kind,  and  performed  under  the  broiling  sun,  that  at 
high  mountain  altitudes  sends  the  mercury  above 
ioo°  on  eveiy  summer's  day,  and  makes  itself  felt  as 
if  the  rarefied  atmosphere  was  no  atmosphere  at  all. 
After  a  long  day  at  the  drill  or  the  pick  or  shovel  in 
such  a  climate,  it  was  only  natural  that  the  men 
should,  with  a  common  impulse,  seek  first  the  solace 
of  their  pipes,  and  then  of  the  shake-downs  in  their 
tents.  I  did  not  know  until  the  next  morning  how 
severely  their  systems  were  strained  ;  but  it  happened 
at  sunrise  on  that  day  that  I  was  at  my  ablutions 
on  the  edo-e  of  the  river  when  Dan  Dunn's  srono^ 
turned  the  silent  forest  into  a  bedlam.  It  was  called 
the  seven-o'clock  alarum,  and  was  rung  two  hours 
earlier  than  that  hour,  so  that  the  men  might  take 
two  hours  after  dinner  out  of  the  heat  of  the  day, 
"  else  the  sun  would  kill  them,"  Dunn  said.  This 
was  apparently  his  device,  and  he  kept  up  the  trans- 
parent deception  by  having  every  clock  and  watch 
in  the  camp  set  two  hours  out  of  time. 

With  the  sounding  of  the  gong  the  men  began  to 
appear  outside  the  little  tents  in  which  they  slept  in 


DAN    DUNN  S    OUTFIT 


325 


couples.      They  came  stumbling  down  the  bluff  to 
wash  in  the  river,  and  of  all  the  pitiful  sights  I  ever 
saw,   they  presented  one  of   the   worst ;    of  all  the 
straining  and  racking  and  exhaustion  that  ever  hard 
labor  gave  to  men,  they  exhibited  the  utmost.     They 
were  but  half  awakened,  and  they  moved  so  painfully 
and  stiffly  that  I  imagined  I  could  hear  their  bones 
creak,     I  have  seen  spavined  work-horses  turned  out 
to  die  that  moved  precisely  as  these  men  did.    It  was 
shocking  to  see  them  hobble  over  the  rough  ground; 
it  was  pitiful  to   watch  them   as  they  attempted  to 
straighten  their  stiffened  bodies  after  they  had  been 
bent  double  over  the  water.     They  gained  erectness 
by  slow  jolts,  as  if  their  joints  were  of  iron  that  had 
rusted.     Of  course  they  soon  regained  whatever  elas- 
ticity nature  had  left  them,  and  were  themselves  for 
the  day — an  active,  muscular  force  of  men.     But  that 
early  morning  sight  of  them  was  not  such  a  spectacle 
as  a  right-minded  man  enjoys  seeing  his  fellows  take 
part  in. 


THE     END 


Interesting  Works 

of 

Travel   and  Exploration. 


Allen's  Blue=Grass  Region. 

The  Blue-Grass  Region  of  Kentucky,  and  other  Kentucky  Articles. 
By  JAMES  LANE  ALLEN.      Illustrated.      8vo,  Cloth,  Ornamejital, 

$2    50. 

Miss  Edwards's  Egypt. 

Pharaohs,  Fellahs,  and  Explorers.  By  AMELIA  B.  EDWARDS. 
Profusely  Illustrated.      8vo,  Cloth,  H  00. 

Hearn's  West  Indies. 

Two  Years  in  the  French  West  Indies.  By  LAFCADIO  HEARN. 
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Interesting  Works  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 

Curtis's  Spanish  America. 

The  Capitals  of  Spanish  America.    By  WILLIAM  ELEROY  CURTIS. 
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Mrs.  Custer's  Two  Volumes. 

BOOTS  AND  Saddles  ;  or,  Life  in  Dakota  with  General  Custer. 
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Captain  King's  Campaigning  with  Crook. 

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Mrs.  Wallace's  Travel  Sketches. 

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